Cristiano Ronaldo Speaks Out After Leaving Portugal National Football Team | Just Jared

Cristiano Ronaldo has broken his silence after exiting the Portugal National Team this week.

The 41-year-old soccer star has been a part of the program for the past 23 years, playing with the team in men’s international games, including at the World Cup earlier this year.

However, things with head coach Jorge Jesus seemed to have come to a head between him and Cristiano, with the athlete parting ways.

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What Cristiano Ronaldo said about leaving them team

“After the press conference of the National Team coach, and following a conversation with the President of the Portuguese Football Federation, I decided to leave the National Team camp.

In due time, I will tell all the Portuguese about the reasons that motivated my departure from the national team, which I always dedicated myself to.

Now it’s time to wish good luck to Portugal and all my teammates, without exception.” – Cristiano Ronaldo via Instagram

Earlier this year, Cristiano teased that this would “probably” be his last year playing pro soccer.

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What led to Cristiano’s exit from the Portugal National Team

According to ESPN, Cristiano did not play in Portugal’s match against Norway on Sunday, and has not trained with the team since.

The Portugal federation said that only Ronaldo left, and the remainder of the team would continue.

“The entire delegation remains fully focused on the national team’s upcoming fixtures and on achieving our goals,” the federation shared in a statement.

During the press conference, head coach Jorge Jesus said that everyone knows the coach makes the rules, and Cristiano would go with whatever he chose. However, he noted that the “rules are the same for everyone” and Gonçalo Ramos would start Thursday’s match against Denmark.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen in the game,” the coach said. “If we need [Ronaldo] to play [at some point], he’ll play. If not, he won’t.”

Jorge and Cristiano previously worked together at Al-Nassr for a year before Jorge was named head coach of Portugal’s national team.

“It seems like there was an issue between us, but there was no issue,” the coach said. “I’m the one who makes the decisions and everybody knows that.”

Jorge said he did tell Cristiano he would probably play against Norway, but changed his mind as the match unfolded, adding it was a mistake to have the player warm up for as long as he did and then not use him. He said “any player” would be upset about that, but didn’t apologize to Cristiano.

“I can promise whatever I want, I’m the coach,” he said. “No player will ever make a decision for me.”

He maintains there was nothing wrong between the two of them, and they even had a meeting with the federation president.

“We had to talk the three of us, but I had already talked with Cris and the president didn’t have to solve anything because there was nothing to solve,” the coach said.

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