The saga surrounding Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure from the Portuguese national team following a falling-out with Jorge Jesus continues to generate headlines worldwide; on Tuesday, it was the subject of a heated debate between Gabriel Agbonlahor and Ally McCoist on the British radio station talkSPORT.
Agbonlahor—a former England international who spent virtually his entire career at Aston Villa (recording 87 goals and 37 assists in 391 official matches between 2005 and 2018)—lamented “the way this happened,” noting that the Al Nassr forward deserved a send-off like the one Lionel Messi is set to receive during the Argentina vs. Benin match.
Even so, he did not hesitate to criticize the player: “If Ronaldo can’t handle the way the manager works—if they are poles apart—then he should retire from international football. I understand the perspective of Portugal as a nation. Clearly, someone is speaking to the manager, saying, ‘We can’t have our greatest-ever player leaving like this. Look at Messi; he has a game tomorrow.'”
“This is a Nations League match. If they are in the game and the manager thinks, ‘I don’t feel bringing Ronaldo on is the right move because I need someone pressing here or there’—well, the manager was wrong to tell Ronaldo he would play for 30, 60, or 90 minutes. Don’t tell him he’s going to play. Tell him, ‘You aren’t starting. If I want to bring you on, I’ll bring you on,'” he added. For the former forward, the problem lies primarily in the fact that the Madeiran cannot accept that he is already 41 years old: “He can still play a role, but can Ronaldo handle the idea of becoming a 15- or 20-minute player? Can he deal with that? I don’t think he can. I think he still believes he is the best player.”
“They allowed a circus to develop around Cristiano Ronaldo.”
Meanwhile, Ally McCoist—a living legend of Scottish football and, above all, Rangers (having scored 355 goals in 581 matches between 1983 and 1998)—acknowledged that Jorge Jesus “perhaps shouldn’t have said he was going to play” Cristiano Ronaldo, but urged public opinion “not to get carried away” by the status the Sporting-trained footballer has built over the last two decades.
“What they are saying is that he should be treated completely differently from his teammates.”
“I’m also being told that the coach and the team manager can’t make decisions. Any decision a coach or team manager makes is subject to change,” he reflected.
“In many ways, people have allowed a circus to develop around Ronaldo. I love Ronaldo; I think he’s absolutely fantastic. If that’s what the other teammates are doing—well, yes, I think they should. Because, the last time I checked, there were eleven Portuguese players on the pitch, not just one,” he added.
“The last time I checked, it was a team sport, no matter how brilliant Ronaldo or Messi might be. They’re fantastic, but they don’t win matches on their own; they have teammates running for them. They might be the star of the show—I get that—and invaluable to the team, but it’s a team sport,” he concluded.
