Luis Figo on Jorge Jesus’ comments about Cristiano Ronaldo’s behaviour against Norway:
🗣️ “Jorge, I understand what you are trying to do. You are the manager, you have to set standards and every player must respect the national team.
But when you are dealing with players like Cristiano Ronaldo, you have to be very careful about what you say publicly.
If you have a problem with Cristiano because he didn’t go over to the supporters, speak to him behind closed doors. If you believe he needs to understand something, tell him privately.
You don’t need to give the media more things to discuss.
When you say publicly that you are going to ‘talk to him’, suddenly the conversation becomes Ronaldo versus Jorge Jesus. Every television show will discuss it, every newspaper will have a headline and every small detail becomes a story.
And those things can affect the dressing room.
The manager has to have authority, of course. But authority doesn’t mean every conversation has to happen in front of the cameras.
You have Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the biggest personalities in football, and you have a dressing room full of players watching everything that happens.
If there is an issue, deal with it inside the dressing room, not through the media.
Jorge is taking an important step by demanding standards from everyone, but sometimes the smartest thing a manager can do is keep his strongest conversations private.” 👀🇵🇹
Follow us for more