“A group too united to be broken by outside forces. A nation too brave to be frightened by any adversary. A team in the truest sense of the word, committed to the dream until the end will fight! Trust us! Go ahead! “Portugal!” With this message, Cristiano Ronaldo responded on the social network Instagram to the news of the alleged threat of the squad being terminated in the middle of the World Cup.
After the Portuguese Football Federation denied news in the Record newspaper about CR7’s alleged threat to leave the national team, after learning that Fernando Santos would bench him in the game against Switzerland (Portugal won 6-1 and qualified as for the quarter-finals), the player resorted to social networks to give a sign of unity, without ever denying the news. And, as DN learned, the conversation between Ronaldo and Santos was heated, like any discussion where the participants disagree and fight. That is, CR7 saw the replacement condition as a punishment and not “a strategic option” as the voter publicly assured, hence the hottest response.
In any case, the substitution issue that led to Ronaldo’s outburst in the game against South Korea (Portugal lost 2-1) was not peaceful, just as the decision to bench the captain was not.
Today, Otávio was the player chosen to address the game against Morocco, assuring that Ronaldo “never said anything about it”, “because he never wanted to leave”. “It is an example and the selection is together with it. We are all united”, underlined.
Regarding CR7’s message, the Porto player agreed. “You are absolutely right, we are united and those outside things are not going to make it into the group. We know everything that is going on, inside and outside, and we are only focused on playing and winning for Portugal,” the midfielder defended, guaranteeing that “nobody saw a fight or anything like that”.
According to Otávio, it’s “normal for a player to be bored when he’s not playing”, but when it comes to Ronaldo, he takes on more dimension: “Everything he does and doesn’t do… is news.” And the proof of that is that five of the eleven questions asked of Otávio in the press room were about CR7. For the FC Porto player, the captain “proved to be always committed to the national team” and lamented the exploitation of the negative side. “When he is good, the team is good and when the team is bad, so is he. He is an example. Even knowing that he would not play, he always gave us strength. We are united”, reinforced.
The word “us”, set by Fernando Santos for Qatar 2022, continues to dominate the public manifestations of the Portuguese delegation, but given the many controversies, the environment will not be so healthy.
Otávio also stated that the change and tasks related to FC Porto are indifferent: “I want to play, whether I play right or in the middle.” And as Pepe’s teammate, he knows “what he’s giving up” to reach a high level at the age of 39: “Only a beast like Pepe can do it. Congratulations. I think he still has a few years to go.”
Source: DN
