Ronaldo, Portugal’s historic top scorer and the most international player in its name, came on as a substitute in the last minutes of a match that ended in a 6-1 victory over Switzerland in the round of 16, after the coach excluded him from the starting line-up after a fit of anger over being substituted against South Korea.
The Italian, Ancelotti, supervised Ronaldo’s training for two seasons at Real Madrid, and these are his statements to the Italian sports newspaper, Corriere dello Sport:
• “Ronaldo may still feel that he is in his twenties because he is in good physical condition.”
• “I trained him for two years and there were no problems. In fact he was the one working out the problems for me.”
• “Cristiano trains well and pays attention to details, which made everything easy for me. He is an exceptional player.”
On Thursday, the Portuguese Football Association denied what was reported in the media about Ronaldo’s threat to leave the national team during the World Cup, after coach Fernando Santos excluded him from the starting line-up.
Ronaldo, who has not scored a goal since winning a penalty kick in Portugal’s opening match against Ghana, issued a statement saying the team was “a group so united that it cannot be broken by outside forces”.
Portugal will meet Morocco in the quarter-finals on Saturday.
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