Portugal coach Jorge Jesus on Monday dismissed calls for him to apologise after Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure, insisting he alone decides who plays and that certain principles are not up for debate.
“I take responsibility”
“Apologise for what? To whom and why? I take responsibility for my decision and for what happened, but apologise for what? It’s absurd,” Jesus said.
The coach stressed that selection is his call alone. “I am the coach. I call up whoever I want. I don’t ask anyone’s opinion on who I select or who plays,” he said.
He added that the national team job carries rules he will not bend. “As national team coach, there are things that are non-negotiable. I couldn’t be any clearer.”
“Because he is a symbol”
Jesus argued that the controversy was inflated because of Ronaldo’s stature, and that it should not damage a relationship built over time.
“In my opinion, you can’t hold a one-year friendship against someone over a situation that is difficult to understand,” he said.
“Just because it was him. Just because it was him, and perhaps rightly so, because he is a symbol, this whole issue of warming up and not warming up, coming on and not coming on, has been created.”
“Is there going to be a problem with any of them?”
The coach pointed to what he described as a double standard in how the matter was treated. “How many players warmed up today and didn’t come on? How many? Is there going to be a problem with any of them? No,” Jesus said.
