Silly question, but when everybody says the same thing and means something different, what is that called? I opened my notebook, created a tab called “Portugal”, then three sub-tabs. I may need a fourth.
First sub-tab, Cristiano Ronaldo. He left the national team camp last week after a disagreement with Jorge Jesus. In a very long statement, he says the coach “broke his word”, apologises to his teammates and the supporters, accepts any sanction, and writes, according to HLN: “I remain available for the national team and will return once any possible suspension has been served.”
Second sub-tab, CNN Portugal. According to the channel, Ronaldo will not return while Jesus is the coach, and he reportedly made that clear to the federation. Available, then. But not now. Or not with him. I wrote both in pencil.
Third sub-tab, Jorge Jesus, after the 2-1 win over Norway: “That’s why, if ‘Cris’ wants it, I will simply call him up in November. It’s up to him to decide.” Then: “But for me, there was never an issue.” It all started with a warm-up that never led to a place on the pitch, he explained.
And then there is Pedro Proença, the federation president: “It’s a misunderstanding, let me be clear about that, and it has to be settled internally.” I underlined “let me be clear”. It is the only sentence in the tab that announces it will be clear.
Let me recap. The player is available. The coach will call him up if he wants. The president says it’s a misunderstanding. Nobody says no. And yet there is nobody at the camp. I’m told it’s always been like this with national teams, fine, but what does that mean?
A misunderstanding is when people have misunderstood each other. Here, everyone understood each other perfectly. Well.
Ronaldo, for his part, resumed training at Al Nassr on 5 October. His club plays Al Diriyah on Thursday. At least that kick-off time is written down. Anyway, I still have a lot to learn.
It’s true, we checked: HLN.
