Bitter Ronaldo: Portuguese media turned their backs, calling for retirement from the national team

Right before the World Cup ticket match, some comments in Portugal suggested that Ronaldo should retire from the national team.

Cristiano Ronaldo is about to enter one of the biggest challenges of his career. That is to bring Portugal to the finals World Cup 2022 in about 10 days. The EURO 2016 champion will compete in the semi-finals of the C bracket against Turkey on March 25.

Ronaldo is under a lot of pressure before the playoff semi-final to compete for tickets World Cup 2022

If they make it to the semi-finals, they will advance to the final and face them the winner of the match between Italy and North Macedonia. These are all “life and death” matches, so Portugal cannot easily win.

The burden for Ronaldo is even more when many key Portuguese players like Ruben Dias or Joao Cancelo… could not play in the match against Turkey for various reasons. Not only that, this superstar is also being pressured by the Portuguese media.

Writer Sergio Pires of Mais Futebol shared his opinion on whether coach Fernando Santos should put Ronaldo on the bench or even not call the 37-year-old superstar to the national team: “This is almost a problem related to politics. It takes a lot of summit meetings to come up with a right strategy for Ronaldo’s “retirement” from the national team.

This will be a big controversy because of the fact that I find that the team has a better performance without the presence of the brightest star. In fact, Portugal has not lost a match without Ronaldo since 2014 until now.

In the 4-1 victory over Croatia in the Nations League in September 2020, the Portuguese team played great with cohesion from top to bottom. Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes, Jota or Felix all played well, not to mention the players in the defence.

However, the appearance of Ronaldo brought a different atmosphere. CR7 is an important player and he always wants everyone to play for him, every ball has to go to him. People are still saying Portugal is the ‘Ronaldo + 10’ team but I think the team is more comfortable and plays better without him.”

At the age of 37, this is the last time for Ronaldo to have the opportunity to participate in the World Cup. Therefore, the Portuguese superstar will definitely give his best. However, how will CR7 feel when the national media is turning its back on him. That is something Ronaldo has not encountered in more than a decade.