Ronaldo a hot topic — as always
Cristiano Ronaldo was the usual hot topic at Portugal’s pregame news conference at the World Cup yesterday — though the issues were hardly positive for his veteran coach to handle.
Rumours of the star player sealing a transfer to a Saudi Arabian club. Fallout from Ronaldo’s bad body language on being substituted last week. A poll at home suggesting most fans don’t want him in the team ahead of playing Switzerland in the round of 16 this morning (8am NZT).
Two of those subjects were swatted away by Fernando Santos, who has coached Portugal and coaxed his star player for more than eight years now.
“I don’t really know about this, to be honest,” Santos said about a Spanish media report that Ronaldo will sign a much-speculated deal with Saudi club Al Nassr after being cut loose by Manchester United. “That’s his decision, that’s what he has to deal with.”
On the subject of Portuguese daily O Bola’s poll: “I’m not paying attention to polls or any other type of this news.”
However, the question of Ronaldo’s body language on being substituted midway through the second half of a 2-1 loss to South Korea moved Santos to assert his authority.
“I didn’t like it, not at all. I really didn’t like it,” Santos said through an interpreter about images he hadn’t seen during the match. “We fixed that in-house and that’s it.”
When asked if he still trusted his captain, Santos again showed who was boss in the Portugal camp.
“I only decide who’s going to be the captain when I reach the stadium. I don’t know what the lineup is,” the coach said, insisting that was consistent with how he always communicated with his team.
Santos gave his explanations sitting beside defender Ru´ben Dias, who had earlier appealed to the Portuguese media to help “create unity” in the camp instead of division.
At a World Cup where Kylian Mbappe´ is the top scorer and Lionel Messi has been thrilling fans with his goals and dribbles, the narrative around one of the other superstars in Qatar has been less smooth.
Maybe he’s about to burst into life in the knockout stage — and erase a blemish in his career: None of Ronaldo’s eight World Cup goals have come in the knockout stage.
The five-time world player of the year heads into the round of 16 in likely his final World Cup facing a Swiss team who haven’t advanced beyond this stage since 1954.
Don’t be fooled, though, this is the same Switzerland that eliminated France in the last 16 at the European Championship last year and have become one of the continent’s most consistent teams.
“We have seen how euphoric Swiss people are about being at this stage,” coach Murat Yakin saiy, adding about Portugal that “we’ve proven that we’re able to beat them”.
In June, the regular rivals traded home wins — 4-0 in Lisbon, 1-0 in Geneva — in a Uefa Nations League group. Today, they will meet for the sixth time in six years. Portugal have won three, Switzerland two.
Portugal might now need Ronaldo to start delivering in order to advance to face Spain or Morocco in the quarter-finals.