Cristiano Ronaldo left the national team with the promise of telling the truth to the Portuguese and he has now done so, in a statement. Ronaldo reveals that he has a letter written for when he says goodbye definitively to the national team, suggesting, first, that the abrupt departure from the training camp will not have been the end of his story with the Portugal shirt. However, further on, he states: "I played the game at Alvalade, and despite being substituted, I made no fuss. I put the armband on Bruno Fernandes myself, far from imagining that I could be taking the last steps as an athlete and captain of the national team."

The national team captain addresses the conversation with Jorge Jesus when the latter took over the national team, after receiving a positive opinion from Ronaldo himself, and ends up detailing what happened in the training camp and the coach's plan for his use in the four games. "The head coach had broken his word to me," he says, when reporting Jorge Jesus's unfulfilled promises, showing himself bothered with the coach for not having fulfilled what was agreed when later addressing journalists in a press conference.

To finish, he says he is available to play for Portugal again: "I have heard a lot about farewell games, that I have to have a worthy farewell and that the Federation wants to give me that opportunity. I learned in life, with hunger and often with nothing to eat, that no one gives anything to anyone. I can promise all my fans, naturally and especially all Portuguese, that we will have one or more farewell games, there will be time for that. But when I think of the national team, what I really think about is competing. So if I am physically well, playing at my club, with goals I hope, after serving the suspension that is applied to me, I will be available, as I have always been until today, to compete and win for our national team."

Read the statement in full:

"As I promised, I decided to tell, in the first person and directly, the circumstances surrounding the last national team training camp.

After the 2026 World Cup I prepared a letter to the Portuguese, which I still keep, with the words I want to address to them when I leave, definitively, our team.

At the end of the competition, right on the return flight from the United States, the Federation President asked and insisted that I reconsider the decision to leave because the FPF wanted me to continue.

Right afterwards he asked me to give him my opinion on the name of the current head coach and that he was considering him, along with other names he did not reveal to me.

I answered the Federation President that, in my opinion, he would be the right choice.

So, on the day the current head coach was presented, I was genuinely happy with the choice. It was the right option, as the results are proving.

A few days later I received a first contact from the new national team coach saying he would like to meet with me personally. I said yes and we scheduled it for the end of my holidays.

We met at Cidade do Futebol, where my club was doing its pre-season training camp.

The head coach told me that day that he counted on me and that my presence was fundamental for his project. He presented me, right there, a plan for my participation. He told me that I would play the first game and the last and that, for physical management reasons, he would always make three to four substitutions per game.

At that point he raised the possibility of me not travelling with the national team to Norway and Denmark. He proposed that I play the first game and stay in Portugal, and then join up again before the game at the Dragão.

I immediately refused this proposal. It seemed evident to me that I could not accept it. It would not be because of not playing the games abroad that I would stop captaining our team. That privilege of staying in Portugal would not be a good example.

The head coach ended up agreeing with my analysis.

This conversation was accompanied by Simão Coutinho, Al Nassr's sporting director, the person to whom the current head coach reported throughout last season and one of those responsible for his signing by the club in 2025.

On the eve of the training camp starting, the head coach came to my house in Lisbon to have a new conversation with me, at his request. The conversation was calm and all the principles agreed in August were maintained.

I played the game at Alvalade, and despite being substituted, I made no fuss. I put the armband on Bruno Fernandes myself, far from imagining that I could be taking the last steps as an athlete and captain of the national team. The important thing that day, for me, was our victory. Winning is always good, in Portugal and for my country, even better.

At lunchtime on the day of the game in Norway, an assistant of the head coach came to the table where the group was having lunch and informed me that the head coach wanted to speak to me. To my absolute surprise, the head coach asked me if I was okay to play 30 minutes. I was totally focused on my physical recovery, integrated with my teammates as always and thinking that I would not play that day. Without any problem.

This request was something outside my physical recovery and training plan - because I would only play on the 4th at the Dragão - but obviously I said yes. He replied that then I should be prepared because I would play 30 min.

The rest everyone knows. I warmed up from half-time, watched the minutes pass and was not called.

The head coach had broken his word to me.

At the end of the game I only wanted everything to end with the victory and to be alone. I did not go to greet the fans. A failure that is only my responsibility and that should not have happened. I apologise to the Portuguese who supported us intensely there, I apologise to the fans and I apologise to those who, without being Portuguese, may have travelled there to see me and whom I may have disappointed.

After 48 hours we had a conversation, me, the head coach and Simão Coutinho, since it had been he who accompanied our August conversations.

It was a deep moment, very upfront, without any kind of filter.

We agreed that there was only one way to close this "case": that the head coach repeat what he had just told me there in private, in Simão Coutinho's presence, but in the Press Room.

What was agreed was simple: the head coach would start the press conference with this topic, seeking to close the matter by telling the truth. He would say that I never asked to play any minutes, that it was the head coach and no one else who proposed the plan for this training camp to me and that it was a mistake to put me warming up without bringing me on and that if it happened again he would not do it.

We ended that meeting with the head coach asking me for a hug, promising me that he would say at the conference what he had just said to me and that the matter would be overcome. I would not play in Denmark and I would play the game at the Dragão. All this in Simão Coutinho's presence, always.

At the head coach's request, a meeting then took place between himself, Simão Coutinho and Tiago Craveiro by videoconference, in which what we had talked about was summarized.

A small document was produced that I myself validated and that, with my knowledge, was delivered to the head coach, as he had requested.

The press conference was what is known: the stance had nothing to do with our meeting, I heard expressions and an aggressiveness that I believe I do not deserve, an attitude of I want, I can and I command that he never showed me, not by far, in private, the day before.

The notes that I validated were the following:

"I think it is important, especially because it is the truth, to clarify a few things before talking about Denmark:

1. I proposed to Cristiano myself, with no one else, a plan for him, this sporting season, in the national team. It was a long and very good conversation.

2. I know how much he lives and loves the national team and the weight he has in the world, even more, the weight and positive influence he has had on the national team for 24 consecutive years.

3. The plan I proposed to Cristiano was accepted.

4. He never questioned my choices. He was exemplary, loyal and professional.

5. The plan I drew up for him did not include the Norway game. However, I felt that he had managed to recover physically from the first game and warned him that I might have to use him. Cristiano agreed.

6. I erred in putting someone of the dimension of Pelé or Maradona to warm up and then not putting him in the game. If it were today I would not do it.

7. To close the matter: I want Cristiano in the national team. In fact I do not want a little, I want a lot. Fortunately he also believes in me. He believed in Al Nassr and here too.

8. About not having greeted the fans. We have already talked about that. Someone who has played more than 230 games for the national team does not receive lessons from me in love for Portugal. It was a moment of frustration that erases nothing. He is the player who gives the most autographs, takes the most selfies, most caresses the fans. Let us not invent problems where they do not exist. When we are not happy we react. That was all."

None of these notes said, therefore, that the head coach even apologised to me.

It was the second time that he was breaking the word he had given me.

I decided to leave the training camp without waiting for any further breaking of his word. For me the truth is still the most important thing in relationships between people. However much it hurts, let them tell me the truth.

In fact, in a conversation I had with the FPF President and with the head coach on the morning of the day of that press conference, they can surely confirm, I reaffirmed that if they did not want me there they should tell me. They just had to be frank with me. I would accept that and I promised that we would prepare something beautiful, as I dream will happen, and no one would be angry.

I remember it as if it were today. They answered in unison that no. That my place was in the national team.

Never, at any moment, did I interfere in any technical or tactical decision of any coach or national team coach in almost 25 years of career. I accept, better or worse, what they propose for me to do. I respect the decision and when they break their word to me, I feel that my place is not there.

I also owe an apology to my national team teammates for having left the training camp. Despite the absolute loss of trust in the head coach's word, as those who witnessed these conversations can testify, I should not have done it. The responsibility is exclusively mine.

I apologise to the Portuguese once again, but the breaking of a word has, for me, a defining impact. I felt that, from there on, my staying would only harm the working group and I did what I always said I would do if I did not feel useful: I picked up my bags and left.

The consequence of this act of mine must be assessed and punished by the Portuguese Football Federation. I understand that the punishment should have no mitigating factors. I am not just any player, I am team captain and that constitutes an aggravating factor. I have already apologised, but I know that actions must have consequences. Anyone who is in football as I am knows that, regardless of each person's status, the rules are the same for everyone.

In this regard, I have heard a lot about farewell games, that I have to have a worthy farewell and that the Federation wants to give me that opportunity.

I learned in life, with hunger and often with nothing to eat, that no one gives anything to anyone.

I can promise all my fans, naturally and especially all Portuguese, that we will have one or more farewell games, there will be time for that.

But when I think of the national team, what I really think about is competing. That is what I thought on the day they gave me the news of my father's death. I was in a training camp with our national team and there I decided to stay until the end of the next day's game. I did that for the country that I would never do for any club.

Therefore if I am physically well, playing at my club, with goals I hope, after serving the suspension that is applied to me, I will be available, as I have always been until today, to compete and win for our national team.

This is, believe it, the purest of truths.

Cristiano Ronaldo

6 October 2026"