“Leave him alone.” The Portugal coach reveals the details of a private conversation with Ronaldo

The coach of the Portuguese national football team, Fernando Santos, confirmed - today, Friday - that the star Cristiano Ronaldo was not happy to keep him on the bench against Switzerland in the final price round, but he did not threaten to leave the "Seleção Europe" camp in the Qatar World Cup 2022.

In the face of the final price against Switzerland, the unimaginable happened when Ronaldo (37 years), the best player in the world 5 times, remained outside the starting line-up, and the match ended with a crushing Portuguese victory 6-1.

Ironically, his replacement, Benfica's young striker Goncalo Ramos (21 years), succeeded in stealing the limelight from him by scoring a wonderful hat-trick, the first in this World Cup, thus becoming the second youngest player to achieve this achievement in the knockout stages after Brazilian legend Pele in 1958.

During a press conference in Doha on the eve of facing Morocco in the quarter-finals, Santos touched on this issue, saying, “Ronaldo and I had a conversation.

He added, "I will not say that I do this with all the players, but he (Ronaldo) is the captain of the national team, and because he is what he represents for Portuguese football and the Portuguese people."

Santos added that the conversation "was on the day of the match after lunch. I did not speak to him before that. I explained to him why he would not start. I explained to him so that he would not be surprised, and I invited him to my office and told him: Listen... This is my strategy. I thought the match would be difficult, and I wanted to I keep it for the second half."

And he added, "He was not happy with this decision. He said to me: Do you really think this is a good idea? I explained to him my point of view, and he accepted my decision."

And the Portuguese newspaper "Record" reported - yesterday, Thursday - that Ronaldo threatened to leave after a charged conversation with Santos.

The local federation of the game denied the news completely, and Santos said, "He (Ronaldo) never told me that he wanted to leave the national team. It is time for us to stop this controversy. It was Ronaldo who started warm-up exercises with his colleagues and celebrated all the goals. He invited his colleagues to shake hands with the fans." It's time to leave Ronaldo alone, he's very important to Portuguese football."