sport news Fernando Santos straightforward words to Cristiano Ronaldo on Switzerland sub ... trends now
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The first mention of Cristiano Ronaldo's name prompted Fernando Santos to chuckle, as Joao Felix was thrown the opening hot potato.
Felix had no intention of providing the answer that was required and his coach smirked. A minute later, another question about you-know-who came in and Santos scrunched his weathered features up tightly, blew out his cheeks and covered his eyes. Here was a man fed up with it all.
So when Santos finally got his opportunity to speak, having been presented with a list of points about Ronaldo that required clarification — Did he want to leave the camp? Had he fallen out with his team-mates? What was his mood? — there was no holding back.
Fernando Santos spoke about the moment he told Ronaldo that he would be sub in their last-16 match with Switzerland
Santos is trying to win a World Cup and Portugal are playing some terrific football, so he had no desire for a relentless narrative to derail them ahead of what will be a fascinating quarter-final clash with Morocco. The time had come to draw a line.
'I did have a conversation with Cristiano and it would have been bad if I did not have that conversation with him,' said Santos, explaining how he told Ronaldo — who started this World Cup breaking a record — he was about to become a bit-part player.
'Since I took the helm of the national team, we needed to have a closer relationship with the players. That's my approach, to have a
