Luís Miguel Henriques, Jorge Jesus’ lawyer, was present this Thursday on the program ‘Jogo Aberto’, broadcast by SIC Notícias, where he ‘lifted the veil’ regarding the succession of episodes that led to Cristiano Ronaldo taking the decision to resign from Portugal’s main team, more than a month after having abandoned its concentration, in the middle of the group stage of the League of Nations.
“I know each other’s personalities, I know exactly what happened in what I was directly involved in. Then, there are things in which I was indirectly involved and others in which I was not involved at all, but it only takes those in which I was directly and indirectly involved to realize that it would be extremely complicated for Cristiano to see, eventually…”, he began by stating.
“It’s very important for people to understand that, perhaps, at a certain point, it was possible. In the first 24 to 48 hours, if things hadn’t been so complicated, it was possible to have clarified a set of issues, but, from a certain point onwards, as a result of a set of subsequent actions, which only aggravated previous problems, things took on a dimension that only those who don’t know a little about Cristiano’s personality…”, he continued.
“I’m not from the mathematical areas, I’m from the social and human sciences, and I had a History teacher who said that, by analyzing the past, you understand the present and anticipate the future a little, otherwise, History wasn’t a science. All you had to do was look at what happened between Cristiano Ronaldo and Fernando Santos, between Cristiano Ronaldo and Jorge Mendes, people who would have given much more to Cristiano than Jorge Jesus, who only worked with him for a year and gave him the title of champion of Saudi Arabia”, he added.
For the jurist, when the 41-year-old player is faced with “a certain situation that he believes should not have been like that, more than consistency, he is extremely obtuse in his decisions and convictions”.
It all started on September 29th
Luís Miguel Henriques then revealed the moment in which, he believes, the ‘brood spilled’ between Cristiano Ronaldo and Jorge Jesus: “I believe that it was the 29th of September, due to a series of issues that happened. I have proof of that, I have messages sent to the right people. As a result of what was happening, I said that, from that moment on, it was very complicated, because there were three scenarios”.
“He clearly said that Cristiano was going to arrange an incident to leave the internship, with or without authorization, and the third scenario was this, of being able, from a certain moment, to realize that the space he had idealized was not exactly the one he was finding, and that, from that moment on, he would follow another path”, he pointed out.
“I said this to two or three people who matter, in writing. For me, it’s no surprise at all. Since September 29th, this scenario was one that, for me, was clearly outlined. Jorge had hope… One thing has to be separated, which is the man from the coach. I’ve worked with Jorge for 30 years, and, with all due respect, he knows that I know him like the back of my hand, in the sense that he has many years and is a very easy person to read”, he added.
In this sense, he even gave an example: “On the day he went to Al Nassr, one of the most responsible people at CR7, SA – and we were even joking a little seriously – said ‘This is either going to go very well, or it’s going to go very badly’. It doesn’t have to do with the team, it has to do, a year before, with going to Al Nassr. If they won, it would go beautifully. Due to the personality and temperament that each one had, Everything could go wrong, because they are very similar.”
“Jorge Jesus the man is sad”
Finally, the sports commentator also highlighted that “we have to separate what Jorge Jesus the man is from what Jorge Jesus the coach is”: “Jorge Jesus the man is sad. This is not what he wanted, this is not what was expected. This is the man. Now, there is the coach, and the coach clearly understands that, regardless of that, there are decisions that have to be made, and these decisions have to be made in favor of the collective.”
“There are decisions that have to be made for what he was hired to do. It’s important to say this. When he came to the national team, it was the thing he wanted most, and I said to him ‘Do you have any idea that they are going to ask you the impossible? Do you know any coach who has won the Nations League, the European Championship and being the world champion in a row? That’s what they will ask of him, because if he doesn’t win the Nations League, they will compare it to what he won. If he doesn’t win the European Championship in 2028, they will compare it to what he won. If he doesn’t win the World Championship, after all, he didn’t do any different'”, he concluded.
