Ronaldo Leaves Portugal Camp, Fernandes Calls Him the Nation's Greatest Symbol

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Cristiano Ronaldo left Portugal’s training camp this week after coach Jorge Jesus told him he would not start against Denmark, a match Portugal went on to win 4-2 without him.
Bruno Fernandes told reporters he had spoken to Ronaldo directly and said the 41-year-old “will never cease to be the greatest symbol of our national team,” while asking the country not to take sides.
Ronaldo’s Portugal future is now in doubt after he was an unused substitute against Norway and then left the squad entirely. He still holds the country’s all-time scoring record, with 146 goals in 233 appearances.

Benched, Then Gone Before the Next Game

Cristiano Ronaldo did not wait around to find out if he would get another chance. After Portugal coach Jorge Jesus told him he would not start the team’s Nations League match against Denmark, the 41-year-old left the squad altogether. Portugal won 4-2 without him. By the time his teammates gathered for a news conference days later, the biggest story in the camp was not the result, but whether Ronaldo would wear the shirt again. Bruno Fernandes, his teammate, took it on himself to answer for him. “Cristiano Ronaldo will never cease to be the greatest symbol of our national team, of our football, and of the country,” Fernandes said, “for what he has done not only in Portugal but throughout the world.”

Ronaldo gave his own account of the decision in a statement posted to Instagram shortly after Jesus’s press conference. He said he had decided to leave the training camp following that news conference and a conversation with the president of the Portuguese Football Federation, and that he would explain his reasoning in full at a later date. He closed the statement by wishing Portugal’s squad good luck “without exception.” Jesus, asked about the walkout, played down any rift with his captain. “I don’t have one player, I have 23 players,” he said, adding that he had actually agreed with Ronaldo in advance that he would not feature against either Norway or Denmark. “Any player who warms up and then doesn’t come on, no one is happy about that,” Jesus said, acknowledging the frustration without describing it as a falling out.

Portugal’s Nations League campaign had started well enough for Ronaldo individually. He played the first 67 minutes of a 1-0 home win over Wales, with Joao Felix scoring the only goal. In the next match, a 2-1 away win in Oslo, Jesus left Ronaldo on the bench for the full 90 minutes while Goncalo Ramos scored in a result that kept Portugal perfect in the group. Then, with the Denmark match in Copenhagen coming up, Jesus told Ronaldo he would not start that one either, and the 41-year-old left the squad before the game was played. Portugal won 4-2 anyway, with goals from Joao Cancelo, Ramos, Vitinha and Felix outweighing a reply from Mikkel Damsgaard and Rasmus Hojlund for the hosts.

Jesus, who had previously managed Ronaldo at Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr, took over the national team for this Nations League campaign after Roberto Martinez left the role. Martinez had faced criticism throughout the summer’s World Cup for rarely substituting Ronaldo even when he was playing poorly, as Portugal went out in the last 16, losing 1-0 to eventual champions Spain.

That last-16 exit came on July 6 in Arlington, Texas, where substitute Mikel Merino scored the only goal in stoppage time. Ronaldo finished the match with just 19 touches and three shots, two of them on target, and could not find a way past goalkeeper Unai Simon. It was Ronaldo’s sixth World Cup, one he had suggested over the summer could be his last, and Spain went on to beat Argentina 1-0 in the final to win the tournament.

Ronaldo had entered the tournament as Portugal’s captain and the first man in history to appear in six World Cups, a milestone he reached at the age of 41. He has continued to wear the armband into this Nations League campaign, including in the Wales match he started and the Norway match he did not play a single minute of, which is part of why his abrupt departure before the Denmark game registered as more than a routine squad rotation.

“There Are No Divisions in the National Team”

Fernandes used Saturday’s news conference to get ahead of a story he said was dividing the country. “I had a conversation with him,” Fernandes said of Ronaldo. “What I told him, and what I repeat here, is regardless of what happens… He has a reserved place not only among the best of all time, but also in the hearts of all Portuguese people, and the most important thing is that we stop dividing things. There are no divisions in the national team. It is one and will remain so, despite any noise that may come from outside. We are outside of this controversy, but what I ask is that the country does not divide itself, does not make choices, that it respects all sides. Cris is and will be the biggest icon of our national team, he deserves everyone’s respect, regardless of who likes him more or [who likes him] less.”

Jesus himself offered only a brief response when asked about Ronaldo ahead of Sunday’s game. He called Ronaldo “a symbol of Portugal” and said there would be time to discuss him properly once the match against Norway was done. “I’m going to focus on the team, on the opponent which is Norway, one of the five best teams in Europe,” Jesus said. “That’s the problem right now.”

Fernandes and Ronaldo were teammates at Manchester United for an injury-hit season in 2021-22 before Ronaldo’s contract there was terminated, and the two have stayed close in the years after, which is part of why Fernandes said he called Ronaldo personally rather than issuing a statement through the federation. That personal history has made Fernandes one of the few voices inside the Portugal camp seen as able to speak for Ronaldo without being accused of taking a side himself.

A Record That Is Not in Question, a Future That Is

Whatever happens next, Ronaldo’s numbers for Portugal are not in dispute. He has scored 146 goals in 233 appearances, both national records, and has helped the country win the European Championship in 2016, when Portugal beat host nation France in the final, and the Nations League twice. The most recent of those titles came in June 2025, when Portugal beat Spain on penalties at Munich’s Allianz Arena after Ronaldo’s 61st-minute equalizer forced extra time in a match that finished 2-2. He holds Portugal’s scoring record and also remains the leading scorer in the history of men’s international football, a mark he has held for several years and continues to extend. He had already suggested over the summer that this could be “probably my last year” playing international football.

Ronaldo’s club form has continued regardless of the international noise around him. He scored his 979th career goal for club and country with a header for Al-Nassr against Abha in the Saudi Pro League, leaving him 21 goals short of becoming the first player in the sport’s history to reach four figures across club and country combined. That chase, as much as anything happening with Portugal, is expected to shape how much longer he keeps playing at all, whatever is decided about his place in Jesus’s squad.

The Jesus connection adds another layer to the story. The two first worked together at Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia, where Jesus was appointed in 2025 and led the club to the Saudi Pro League title with Ronaldo as his main attacking weapon. It was one of several trophies in a managerial career that includes two Europa League final appearances and ten pieces of silverware at Benfica, two Saudi Pro League titles with Al-Hilal, and a Copa Libertadores and Brazilian league double with Flamengo in 2019. When the Portuguese federation turned to Jesus after the World Cup exit, the shared history with Ronaldo was seen as a point in his favor rather than a source of friction, which is part of why this week’s walkout caught so many by surprise.

Portugal go into Sunday’s match against Norway top of Group A4 with nine points from nine, needing a top-two finish in the group to reach the quarter-finals in March. Jesus has not said whether Ronaldo will be included in the squad again before the group finishes with games against Denmark and Wales in November. For now, the only person speaking for Ronaldo in the Portugal camp is a teammate asking everyone else to stop taking sides.

The Stakes Beyond Portugal

Ronaldo remains one of the most watched athletes anywhere, and how his international career ends will be picked over long after this Nations League group is decided. Fernandes’s intervention was as much a plea for calm among supporters as it was a defense of Ronaldo himself, a sign that even inside a dressing room that had just won without him, the conversation had moved past the result and onto what comes next.

WRITTEN BY

Jarrod

Jarrod Partridge is the Founder of Futbol Chronicle and an accredited journalist with over 30 years of experience following international football. A member of the AIPS International Sports Press Association, Jarrod has covered matches at stadiums around the world, bringing first-hand insight to every match report, player profile, and tactical analysis he writes.