Cristiano Ronaldo, a five-time winner of the Golden Ball, joined his teammates from Portugal on Monday to start preparing the World Cup-2018, opting not to speak to the media during his first training session near Lisbon.
The 33-year-old attacker appeared smiling and relaxed on the grass of the headquarters of the Portuguese Football Federation in Oeiras, on the western outskirts of Lisbon, leaving Joao Moutinho in charge of responding to reporters at the press conference.
After a week of vacation, Cristiano was very expected due to the doubts he raised about his future at Real Madrid.
Moments after the new coronation of the Meringues in the Champions League, on May 26 against Liverpool (3-1), ‘CR7’ surprised the world of football by declaring in the past that “it was good to play at Real Madrid”.
The captain of the Portugal team then promised to give “news” before joining the Selecçao, but seemed to back off the next day citing Madrid fans for “next year”.
The Spanish newspaper Marca wrote on Monday that the star born on the island of Madeira would have finally decided to opt for a low profile and not express himself immediately, judging that the situation had changed due to the departure of Zinédine Zidane who, to everyone’s surprise, He left the position of coach of the White House.
“Cristiano Ronaldo is very strong mentally,” Joao Moutinho told the press, stating that “no player will be affected by the march of the transfer market.”
“We are all focused on the World Cup, not on speculation,” said the Monaco midfielder.
The European champion, Portugal will play a final match against Algeria on Thursday in Lisbon, after conceding two draws against Tunisia (2-2) and Belgium (0-0).
Set in Group B of the World Cup-2018 (June 14 – July 15), the Selecçao will enter the field against Spain on June 15 in Sochi, before facing Morocco and then to Iran.
