Cristiano Ronaldo has been fined £215 and is free to play for Portugal despite his explosive walk-out last month.
The superstar, 41, has technically been banned for a month by Portuguese football chiefs – but that punishment is backdated to his strop on September 30, reports in his homeland claim.
That means his ban will be served by the time Portugal’s next fixture against Denmark rolls around on November 14, so Jorge Jesus will free to play him.
Meanwhile, his piddling fine of £215 will take the billionaire approximately 38 seconds to recoup on his £488,000-per-day salary at Saudi Arabian moneybags Al-Nassr.
It was a saga which threatened to end Ronaldo’s international career, derail the national team, and undermine the authority of manager Jesus.
Ronaldo was livid after being left on the bench despite warming-up for Portugal’s Nations League win over Norway on September 27 – the first time he has been an unused substitute during his 18-year international career.
Cristiano Ronaldo is free to play for Portugal despite his explosive walk-out – as his ban doesn’t reach their next game
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner – a billionaire who earns £488,000 every day – has been fined £215
That led to him skipping three training sessions and abandoning the camp for Portugal’s last two matches of the international break, fleeing to Spain via private jet.
He did not even watch their next match against Norway because he was soaring away on his plane with his family.
The former Manchester United star was vexed at how Jesus had handled his press conference after leaving him on the bench.
Ronaldo insisted that Jesus had broken a promise to apologise to the ‘Portuguese people’ and his team-mates for not bringing him on.
He claimed he had been guaranteed 30 minutes of football against Norway after the Portuguese FA persuaded him not to retire following the World Cup.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner even offered to retire if that was what the coach and head of Portuguese FA wanted, only for them to reiterate their desire to have him.
Jesus was ultimately vindicated in his decision to exclude Ronaldo – he has won all four of his matches in charge of Portugal and they look a more balanced team for it.
The 72-year-old has handled himself with grace throughout the episode, maintaining that Ronaldo would be welcomed back with open arms – a stance his team-mates have publicly backed.
Even so, Ronaldo released a stinging 1,996-word statement accusing Jesus of ‘broken promises’. He said the manager had agreed to deliver an eight-point mea cupla taking responsibility for leaving him on the bench after a supposed pact to play him.
Jesus did concede it was a mistake to make him warm up but gave a different narrative of events, saying: ‘The match in Norway was not part of the plan I drew up for him. However, I felt that he had managed to recover physically from the first match and I warned him that I might have to use him. Cristiano agreed.’
Manager Jorge Jesus has insisted that Ronaldo is welcome back, and so have his team-mates
But Jesus deviated from eight-points that Ronaldo expected the Portugal boss to address
‘The status doesn’t give players preferential treatment. The status is about respect for their careers. Like I do with Cris. ‘I always put the issue first, the plan, which is drawn up with the player, and I’m the one who decides. They know, even the presidents know. The president is in charge at the club, I’m in charge at the team.’
Another of Ronaldo’s requests was for Jesus to say: ‘I made a mistake by putting someone of the stature of Pelé or Maradona on to warm up and then not putting him in the game. If it were today I would not do it.’
The Portugal boss appeared to have followed some of the request, even referencing legends Pele and Maradona during his press conference as he acknowledged he had made a mistake with his handling of Ronaldo.
Jesus, however, had continued by again stressing that he can promise players ‘whatever I want’ but he would not change his mind on decisions regardless of the status of the player.
‘I told Cris that he wasn’t going to play these two games,’ Jesus said.
‘I thought during the game, maybe I’ll need him and he’ll warm up. And then I didn’t put him in the game.
‘Any player, when we’re warming up for 20 or 30 minutes, and then they don’t come on. No one is happy about that. Much less Cris. Much less Pele, Maradona, that’s the status.
‘When the game started, I told him to warm up at the 45th minute, I didn’t know what I was going to do. That’s what I did wrong, I should have had him warm up about 15 minutes later.’
Jesus, however, added: ‘The game dictates what I’m going to do. I thought I had even discussed it with him, but maybe until I needed him in the final minutes.
Jesus’ comments ultimately led to Ronaldo walking out of the Portugal national team camp
‘But the game dictated other things and I didn’t put him in.
‘I can promise whatever I want. I’m a coach, I told the player he wasn’t going to play, but I’ll put you on the bench.
‘Since I saw the game my way, he didn’t come on. There will never be a player who will change my mind. Never, zero.’
Another of Ronaldo’s requests was for Jesus to confirm his desire for him to be part of the Portugal squad by saying ‘I want Cristiano in the National Team. In fact I do not want him a little, I want him a lot.’
The request was not touched upon by Jesus in his comments to the media, as well as highlighting Ronaldo’s love of the national team.
Jesus, however, had previously referred to Ronaldo as being a ‘symbol of Portugal’ in a joint press conference at the start of the international break.
Throughout, the ex-Al Nassr boss has remained magnanimous.
He explained: ‘It’s up to Cris to decide his own life. In the next call-up, if Cris is playing and wants to be in the national team, why not?
‘Resentment? Nothing, it was a misunderstanding. In my opinion, it’s easy to resolve. When will I resolve it? I don’t know. The game is over, and only afterwards will we know how things will turn out.
‘It’s not up to me. To reach an agreement with two people, both people need to talk and agree. That’s not up to me.
‘Just because it was him, and perhaps rightly so because he’s a symbol, this whole problem of him coming on, warming up, not coming on. How many players warmed up today and didn’t come on? Will there be a problem? No.
‘With Cris it’s different, he’s a symbol. But is it a problem? For me it wasn’t a problem. If Cris wants to and is playing for Al-Nassr, he’ll be in the next squad. We talked before this squad and we can talk before the next one. It’s Cris who will decide.’
