Published : 02 Oct 2026, 11:20 AM
Updated : 02 Oct 2026, 11:20 AM
Cristiano Ronaldo was hundreds of kilometres away, but Portugal could hardly escape his presence in Copenhagen.
Jorge Jesus was jeered by some supporters before kick-off and backed by others inside Parken. Goncalo Ramos, whose selection had become entwined with the row, scored. Rafael Leão wore Ronaldo’s No. 7 shirt. Even Denmark striker Rasmus Hojlund marked his goal with the Portuguese captain’s familiar celebration.
By the end of the night, Portugal had beaten Denmark 4-2 and produced what both Jesus and Vitinha regarded as their best performance so far under the new coach.
But the victory did not make the turmoil surrounding the national team disappear.
Ronaldo had abruptly left Portugal’s camp the previous day after tensions over his role escalated following the 2-1 win over Norway, when he remained on the bench despite warming up for around half an hour.
Jesus later said there had been a workload plan for Ronaldo not to start against either Norway or Denmark. He had nevertheless considered using him for around 30 minutes in Oslo before deciding the course of the match required something different.
Ronaldo did not rejoin full training after the Norway match, instead doing individual work in the gym. Reports did not suggest he was carrying any injury.
He and Jesus then met on Tuesday night in an attempt to resolve the tension.
Hours later, however, Jesus publicly defended his authority over team selection, saying players’ status did not give them different rights and that no player would change his ideas.
After the press conference and a conversation with Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) president Pedro Proenca, Ronaldo announced that he had decided to leave the camp and said he would tell Portuguese supporters "the truth" about his reasons in due course.
Reuters, citing Spanish sports newspaper Marca, reported that Jesus and Proenca made an unsuccessful dash to Copenhagen airport in an attempt to persuade the 41-year-old to stay before he flew to Madrid.
The episode left questions hanging over Ronaldo’s international future and, only two matches into Jesus’s reign, turned Thursday’s meeting with Denmark into an unexpected examination of the coach’s authority.
Jesus Faces The Fans
The division surrounding the row was evident before a ball had been kicked.
Francisco Sebe, a correspondent for Portuguese sports newspaper A Bola in Copenhagen, reported that several dozen supporters, Portuguese and others, greeted Jesus with loud whistles and jeers as he walked from the team hotel to the bus.
The hostile reception followed him to Parken, where another audible round of jeering came from the stands after Jesus finished his pre-match television interview.
Yet the reaction inside the ground was not one-sided.
Images circulating on social media during the match showed a group of Portugal supporters using their shirts to spell out "WE LOVE U JESUS".
Elsewhere in the ground, another group displayed Ronaldo’s name alongside a heart in a show of support for the absent captain.
The contrasting messages reflected the split that had developed around the national team since Ronaldo’s departure.
Jesus later said he had not heard whistles from Portuguese supporters.
Before the match, however, he had refused to reopen the dispute.
Asked by Portuguese public broadcaster RTP whether he would have handled anything differently, Jesus said the focus had to remain on Denmark and then Sunday’s match against Norway.
"There will certainly be time to talk about it," he said, describing Ronaldo as "a closed subject" for the moment.
Asked separately by Portuguese sports broadcaster Sport TV whether his conscience was clear, Jesus replied: "Completely."
He said he had been in football long enough to know he had done nothing that should have prevented matters continuing as before.
Jesus also stressed Ronaldo’s standing in Portuguese football, calling him "a symbol" and "a figure", and said he would address the episode after the Norway game rather than avoid the subject.
After the victory, Jesus walked towards the Portugal supporters to celebrate with them.
Asked about the gesture, he said such interaction was nothing new for him and recalled doing the same while coaching Ronaldo at Al Nassr.
He even remembered beating a drum alongside Ronaldo during celebrations at the Saudi club, an image of a far warmer relationship than the one now dominating Portugal’s camp.
Asked whether he felt the country was behind him, Jesus said he did not know.
"I’d like it to be," he added.
Players Close Ranks
Portugal’s players were initially reluctant to enter the dispute.
Ruben Neves declined to discuss Ronaldo before kick-off, saying the team’s priority was the match and that there would be time to talk about other matters later.
Once the game was over, however, the players offered a clearer picture of how the squad had dealt with a turbulent buildup.
Francisco Trincao acknowledged that it had been difficult for the team to remain untouched by the controversy.
"Obviously it is difficult," he told RTP, before declining to go further out of "respect for everyone".
Vitinha, who scored Portugal’s third goal, was more emphatic about the response.
"We responded incredibly," he said when asked about the Ronaldo episode, congratulating the entire group.
The Paris Saint-Germain midfielder called the 4-2 win Portugal’s best performance so far under Jesus and said the coach’s work was already becoming clear in the team’s play.
Ramos, who scored Portugal’s second and helped create Joao Cancelo’s opener, also credited Jesus with helping to sharpen the side’s ideas, saying the players now had a clearer understanding of where their teammates would be in and out of possession.
Nuno Mendes similarly praised the new coach, saying Portugal had been able to put their work on the training ground into practice and that he was enjoying working with a manager who had "many good ideas".
He also insisted the controversy had not fractured the squad, saying the players had always been "rowing in the same direction".
There were limits, however, to how much some players were prepared — or permitted — to say.
Renato Veiga told reporters he was close to Ronaldo but had been "given instructions" not to discuss the controversy, apologising when pressed further.
Leao also kept his distance from the dispute, saying it was not an issue for the players to resolve and stressing that the team remained the priority.
He nevertheless added that, knowing Ronaldo as a teammate and friend, he was sure the captain would have been happy at home with Portugal’s victory.
Nuno Mendes went a step further when asked whether there was still a way back for Ronaldo.
"Obviously," he said, noting that Ronaldo remained a Portugal player and adding that the squad was there to receive any player selected for the national team.
Jesus, meanwhile, said the events of the previous days had neither divided the group nor would be allowed to do so.
Rather than claiming to have the squad "in his hands", he said he had a group that believed in the coach’s ideas and was moving with him in the same direction.
Ramos’s contribution carried particular significance because he had started ahead of Ronaldo against Norway and scored the winning goal in Oslo.
Jesus then confirmed before the Denmark match that Ramos would again lead the attack, as questions over Ronaldo’s status increasingly dominated the buildup.
Ronaldo left the camp later that day.
Ronaldo Still Everywhere
For all Portugal’s attempts to focus on the players who remained, reminders of their absent captain were difficult to avoid.
Leao took over the No. 7 shirt Ronaldo has made synonymous with Portugal.
RTP reported that the switch was a routine consequence of UEFA’s squad-number rules, with the number unable to remain vacant within Portugal’s match list after Ronaldo left the camp.
Leao moved from 17 to seven, while Fabio Silva took No. 17.
The circumstances nevertheless ensured the change attracted considerable attention.
Leao said afterwards that wearing the shirt carried personal meaning beyond the circumstances of Ronaldo’s departure.
He described Ronaldo as a childhood idol and said seven was also a special number for him because his children were born on that date.
"I simply tried to honour the shirt and enjoy it," he said.
Then came Hojlund.
The Denmark striker made it 2-2 after the break and celebrated in the style made famous by Ronaldo, another reminder of the player who was not at Parken but continued to dominate discussion around the game.
The timing inevitably drew attention, although Hojlund had used the Ronaldo celebration before and has long spoken of the Portuguese forward as an idol, making it unsafe to assume the gesture was intended as a message about the dispute with Jesus.
Away from the stadium, the row was also playing out across social media.
A Bola reported that the Portugal national team’s official Instagram account lost more than 300,000 followers in less than 24 hours after the controversy erupted, falling from around 24.94 million to 24.6 million.
Ronaldo’s sister, Elma Aveiro, shared the figures on her Instagram stories alongside messages critical of how the situation had unfolded.
The numbers were another indication of the depth of support surrounding a player who has been the face of Portugal’s national team for more than two decades.
Crisis Spreads Beyond The Pitch
The fallout had already reached far beyond football.
Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro spoke separately to Ronaldo, Jesus and Proença on Wednesday, according to A Bola and RTP, citing the prime minister’s office.
Montenegro sought to understand the situation after Ronaldo’s departure became a major talking point in Portugal and beyond.
There was an even more emphatic intervention from Ronaldo’s native Madeira.
Miguel Albuquerque, president of Madeira’s regional government, declared that "Madeira supports Cristiano Ronaldo" and defended the forward’s contribution to Portugal, while acknowledging that Ronaldo was not always right.
The Portuguese players’ union also called for efforts to bring the sides closer together and find a solution that protected the dignity of the national team while recognising Ronaldo’s place in the country’s football history.
That intervention came as uncertainty continued over whether Ronaldo’s departure marked the end of his international career or another chapter in a dispute that could still be resolved.
There is also a potential disciplinary dimension, although it remains unclear whether it will come into play.
Article 160 of the FPF’s disciplinary regulations states that a player who, after being regularly called up, unjustifiably leaves or fails to attend national-team training, a match or another activity can be suspended for between one and six months.
The federation has not said that it regards Ronaldo’s departure as unjustified, nor has it announced any disciplinary proceedings against him.
Neither Ronaldo nor the FPF has given a detailed public account of what ultimately caused him to leave.
Jesus had previously acknowledged that Ronaldo was angry with him after remaining on the bench against Norway, but said he considered the matter resolved.
Within days, Ronaldo was gone.
What Comes Next
Portugal’s performance in Copenhagen supplied Jesus with a powerful response on the pitch as the team emerged from one of the most turbulent weeks of the coach's short reign with a third consecutive Nations League victory.
It did not, however, settle the dispute.
Asked after the Denmark win about a possible Ronaldo return, Jesus declined to answer and said the quality and maturity of Portugal’s performance mattered more at that moment than everything that had happened around it.
His players were somewhat less definitive. Mendes explicitly left the door open, while Leao spoke of Ronaldo as a friend and teammate and said he believed the captain would have celebrated the victory from home.
Jesus has promised to address the Ronaldo issue after Sunday’s match against Norway.
Ronaldo, meanwhile, has promised to tell Portuguese supporters his version of events "in due time".
Until both do, Copenhagen showed that Portugal can continue winning amid the turmoil.
