“Ronaldo, we haven’t had a conversation since the Qatar World Cup.”

Coach Fernando Santos (Portugal), who recently resigned from his position as the head coach of the Polish national soccer team, candidly confessed the reason why he had Cristiano Ronaldo (Al Nasr) on the bench when he led his country’s national team to the World Cup in Qatar last year.

Coach Santos said in an interview with ‘A Bola’ on the 8th (Korean time), “We have not had a conversation since the Qatar competition. Aside from soccer, he had a close personal relationship with Ronaldo. “I don’t know what happened,” he said, emphasizing that “(last year’s World Cup) was a technical decision.”

Ronaldo experienced the worst World Cup finals last year. Although he started in the final match against Korea in the group stage (Portugal lost 1-2), he performed poorly and retired to the bench early in the second half, followed by the round of 16 match against Switzerland (Portugal won 6-1) and the quarterfinals against Morocco (Portugal lost 0-1). He was excluded from the starting lineup, giving his starting spot to rookie Gonzalo Hamus. In fact, it was supposed to be the last World Cup, but the bench was humiliated. At the time, he publicly expressed his dissatisfaction and there were rumors of a disagreement with coach Santos.

Regarding this 안전놀이터 , Coach Santos said, “Ronaldo had a terrible time mentally and physically in the second half of 2022. It started with a misfortune (the death of his twin sons) that no one in his family wanted to experience. “He had a big influence on him,” he said. “Of course, there is the performance aspect as well. Ronaldo did not play in any preseason games (for his team at the time, Manchester United) and did not train for nearly two months. “He didn’t have the rhythm of the game.”

Coach Santos also acknowledged that Ronaldo was openly dissatisfied at the time. He said: “He went to me on the morning of the game to explain to him why he was left out of the starting XI. But Ronaldo misunderstood me. “Of course he understands the reaction,” he said. “He is still like a son or younger brother to me. I have no regrets (about the decision at the time). “I understand he was hurt at the time and I feel he may still be hurt.”