DT from Portugal gave details of the talk with Cristiano Ronaldo: “I told him I didn’t have him for this match”

The substitution of Cristiano Ronaldo, from last Tuesday in the Portugal-Switzerland match, is still a topic of conversation in the public appearances made by the team that is getting ready to play the quarterfinals in Qatar 2022. After hearing various voices throughout of the week, all that remained was to know the word of Fernando Santos, the coach who decided to bench the current free agent.

In a press conference, the coach narrated the details of an unexpected movement: ‘CR7’ among the alternatives to face the round of 16 of the World Cup. And it is that, since he assumed the leadership of the national team, the 37-year-old footballer has been an initialist, without any discussion.

In this sense, Santos told the press that he spoke with Cristiano and that, due to the unprecedented circumstances, he imagined that something like this could happen. “That conversation happened, it would be bad if it hadn’t happened. Since I got here, I only tell the team the line-up an hour and a half before the game. I write it on the blackboardbeginning.

Later, the DT admitted that, because it was about Ronaldo, he had made an exception. “It had to happen, it was more than normal, I don’t do that with everyone, but the captain, someone who is who he is, in terms of projection, what he represents for the Portuguese and for the team, naturally he had to have that conversation”he went on.

Immediately afterwards, the coach of the representative Portuguese went into details about the one-on-one with the scorer. “It happened on the day of the game after lunch. We didn’t have any conversation before. The only conversation I had was to explain the reasons why he was not going to play. I let him know”held.

Along these lines, Fernando Santos added: “We had a conversation in my office, he came and I told him that I didn’t count on him for this game from the beginning. I thought that his entry in the second half could solve the game. If Cristiano was very satisfied? No. He usually plays as a starter. It is normal that he was not very satisfied ”.

DT’s request with Cristiano Ronaldo

The Portugal coach asked the media for restraint with what they publish and specifically referred to the player’s alleged threat to leave the concentration in Qatar 2022. “It was a perfectly normal and calm conversation. He never told me that he wanted to leave the national team. I think it’s time we stopped some things. It’s a bit fashionable just pointing to Cristiano”he pointed.

So, Fernando Santos, like others within the team, highlighted the figure of the captain: “If there is a better example, it is the example that he gave in the game. He was the one who was shouting in the locker room, the one who was jumping, I saw him on TV clapping along with Joao Mario. In the end it was he who called his teammates to applaud. Leave Ronaldo alone.”sentenced.