Cristiano Ronaldo was provisionally suspended by the Portugal Football Federation after a disciplinary case was opened following the star walking out of the national team’s training camp ahead of their Nations League match vs Denmark earlier this month after a tiff with coach Jorge Jesus.
The 41-year-old Ronaldo left Portugal’s Nations League camp last week after being an unused substitute against Norway. He would also find out that he would not start against Denmark. Ronaldo had vowed in a social media post that he would reveal the full picture later, a time which arrived on Instagram on Tuesday night with six slides and an elaborate clarification running nearly 2,000 words.
In that Insta post, Ronaldo had also suggested that the Portugal Football Federation should punish him for leaving the national team.
“The Portuguese Football Federation must assess the consequences of my actions and punish me for them. I believe the punishment should not be reduced. I have already apologised, but I know that actions have consequences,” he had said.
On Saturday, the federation took him up on his words and suspended him.
“The initiation of disciplinary proceedings against Cristiano Ronaldo, by deliberation of the Non-Professional Section, of October 9, 2026, with the purpose of the investigation of any disciplinary relevance of the facts participated on October 7. Without prejudice to the automatic preventive suspension to which he was subject until the date of establishment, the non-automatic preventive suspension of the player was determined and the urgent nature was attributed to the process,” the federation said in a statement as per journalist Fabrizio Romano.
Previously, Ronaldo had endorsed his former Al-Nassr manager Jesus as the “right choice” to take over the Portugal reins. Ronaldo also revealed he came close to retiring from international duty following Portugal’s round-of-16 exit at this summer’s World Cup. He had already drafted a farewell letter to the supporters, but Portuguese Football Federation president Pedro Proença persuaded him to reconsider during the flight home from the United States.
Ronaldo remained apologetic, but reiterated his stance on his sudden exit from the camp. “I owe an apology to my national team teammates for having left the camp… I apologise to the Portuguese people once again, but a broken word has, for me, a defining impact,” he wrote.