Cristiano Ronaldo retirement: Portugal captain did not tell Jorge Jesus, reports say

Cristiano Ronaldo announced his retirement from international football on Thursday, but reports in Portugal suggest the decision was made without informing Portugal manager Jorge Jesus.

According to Portuguese newspaper Record, Ronaldo told Pedro Proenca, president of the Portuguese Football Federation, that he would no longer represent his country. However, he did not contact Jesus or tell the manager directly that he would not return to the national team.

The reported decision highlights the breakdown in the relationship between the Portugal captain and his manager in recent weeks.

Jesus had been planning to include Ronaldo in the Portugal squad due to be announced on Friday. The manager was expected to continue relying on his captain, only to discover that their relationship had deteriorated significantly.

Record also reported that Ronaldo had not replied to messages sent by Jesus over the past few weeks. The lack of communication was said to reflect the extent of the rift between the two men, whose relationship had reached a complete impasse following events in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Those events were described by the newspaper as the decisive turning point. Attempts to re-establish contact afterwards failed to restore their previous relationship, leaving the manager and captain heading towards an unexpected conclusion.

Ronaldo then chose to announce the end of his international career in a video posted on his official social media accounts on Thursday. He confirmed he would not return to play for Portugal, despite Jesus preparing to select him once again.

He leaves the national team at the age of 41 after making 234 international appearances and scoring 146 goals. Ronaldo remains the most-capped player and the leading goalscorer in international football, having established a record that will be difficult to match.

The manner of his departure, however, was not the farewell many would have expected for one of Portugal’s most important players. Rather than ending his international career alongside his team-mates and manager in a public celebration, Ronaldo’s announcement came amid a serious dispute with Jesus.

The circumstances have raised questions about what happened behind the scenes and how the relationship between Portugal’s captain and manager reached such a definitive end. With Jesus still intending to call Ronaldo up for the next squad, the announcement also caught the manager’s plans off guard.

Ronaldo’s decision therefore brings his Portugal career to a close not through a final appearance or a planned send-off, but through a personal announcement made before the coach’s squad was revealed.