Portugal head coach Jorge Jesus has revealed that he was unaware of Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s decision to retire from international football until the announcement was made public.\n<\/p>\n
The 41-year-old forward announced his retirement in an Instagram video on Thursday, a day before Jesus was scheduled to unveil his squad for this month\u2019s Nations League fixtures.\n<\/p>\n
As reported by BBC Sport, speaking at a news conference on Friday, Jesus said Ronaldo had not informed him of his decision and was still among the players he intended to select.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI found out when we all did. Until then, I knew nothing about it,\u201d Jesus said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was playing, he was scoring goals; he was one of the players on my squad list.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ronaldo became available for selection again after serving a 30-day suspension from international duty, although the suspension did not cover any national team matches.\n<\/p>\n
The Al-Nassr forward had left Portugal\u2019s camp in September after being informed that he would not start the Nations League match against Denmark four days later.<\/p>\n
He subsequently accused Jesus of breaking his word but accepted that he deserved punishment for leaving the camp prematurely. At the time, Ronaldo also insisted that he had no intention of retiring from international football.\n<\/p>\n
Jesus appeared visibly frustrated on Friday when journalists questioned him about the disagreement.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cAll my decisions were made with the team in mind,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a manager, I have always defended what was best for the team. I am at peace with my decision.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Ronaldo\u2019s final international appearance came in Portugal\u2019s 1-0 victory over Wales in Lisbon, three days before he was an unused substitute against Norway on September 27.\n<\/p>\n
He ended his international career with 146 goals in 234 appearances for Portugal, both men\u2019s world records. He also played a key role in helping the country win the 2016 European Championship.\n<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Portuguese Football Federation president Pedro Proen\u00e7a paid tribute to the legendary forward, describing his contribution to Portuguese football as invaluable.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo tribute will ever be enough to thank him for everything he has done for Portuguese football, for Portugal,\u201d Proen\u00e7a said.\n<\/p>\n
He added that the best way to honour Ronaldo was to embrace his ambition, winning mentality and determination to remain among the best in the world.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you for everything, captain. This is and always will be your home,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
Ronaldo\u2019s retirement brings an end to one of the most remarkable international careers in football history, having represented Portugal since making his debut in 2003.\n <\/p>\n
Source: <\/p>\n
Portugal head coach Jorge Jesus has revealed that he was unaware of Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s decision to retire from international football until the announcement was made public. The 41-year-old forward announced… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11110,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}