It has all happened very quickly.
After the World Cup, Portugal replaced Roberto Martinez with Jesus, who had been Ronaldo’s boss with Al-Nassr last season.
Less than two weeks ago, Ronaldo said: “I had a conversation with our president, with our coach. I still believe that I’m able to help the national team to reach what they want.”
Things were still looking OK when he started in the 1-0 win over Wales.
Jesus told Ronaldo he would be on the bench for the next game against Norway. After being told to warm up for a period of the game, he remained an unused substitute in a Portugal game for the first time in 18 years.
Guillem Balague, who wrote a book about Ronaldo in 2015, said: “He gets asked to warm up for the whole of the second half, practically.
“There are tacit rules in football: you don’t do that to Pele, to Diego Maradona, to Lionel Messi, to Cristiano, right? That’s what he’s seen, that you don’t do that to those kind of players.”
And as the final whistle went he went down the tunnel instead of going to the fans with his team-mates.
Jesus said there was no falling out – but confirmed Ronaldo would not start the next game with Denmark either.
At that point Ronaldo left the training camp – and wrote on social media: “In due course, I will tell the truth to all the Portuguese people about my reasons for leaving the national team, to which I have always been dedicated.”
Portugal’s FA president Pedro Proenca flew to Copenhagen, landing at 02:30 in the morning, to try to smooth things over with Ronaldo but failed.
He has since said: “He is in the national team on sporting merit, and that must be unquestionable. We have to pay tribute to Ronaldo.”
After beating Norway on Sunday in their final Nations League match – again without Ronaldo – Jesus said: “If he wants to, he’ll return to the national team. We can talk before the next call-up, but Cris is the one who’s going to decide.
“He’s the one who should decide how he wants to end his time with the national team.”