Christiano Ronaldo

Portugal deny that Cristiano Ronaldo threatened to leave the World Cup after being dropped

Portuguese news outlet Record report that Ronaldo, the Portugal captain, threatened to leave the tournament in Qatar after the 37-year-old was told he would not start against the Swiss.

The superstar forward had reacted angrily when he was substituted in their last group match against South Korea and the Portugal coach, Fernando Santos, said before the Switzerland game that he did not like that reaction from Ronaldo.

Football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo tests positive for coronavirus

The federation said Ronaldo was doing well and had no symptoms. It did not say when he tested positive.

Ronaldo played in the 0-0 draw at France in the Nations League on Sunday, and also in the 0-0 draw against Spain in a friendly last week.

Ronaldo is in isolation and has been dropped from the country's Nations League match against Sweden on Wednesday (local time) in Lisbon.

'Ronaldo is wanted at Real Madrid'

The Portugal international, whose national side will meet Chile in the semi-finals of the competition in Russia, was, according to reports in Spain, buoyed by words of support from Madrid president Florentino Perez this week.

But Campos insists Ronaldo is still hurt and will need to think things through after his international duties.

Ronaldo skips questions following Portugal victory

The 32-year-old netted the only goal of the game to help the European champions to victory in Moscow, beating goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev from close range early on.

As man of the match, he was due to appear in front of the press, but Ronaldo was in no mood to take any questions amid ongoing uncertainty about his future at Madrid and stuck to a few prepared words on Portugal's win.

"Obviously we are very happy, it is the first time that Portugal wins in Russia," he stated.

Ronaldo turns down Chinese mega-bucks

Jorge Mendes told Sky Sports Italia that Madrid had been offered that sum as a transfer fee for the player, who would in turn receive over 100 million euros - around $A147 million - a year in salary.

"From China, they've offered 300m euros to Real Madrid and more than 100m per year to the player," Mendes said.

"But money is not everything. Real Madrid is his life. Cristiano is happy at Real Madrid and it is impossible to go to China."

Nani: We can cope without Ronaldo

The Real Madrid forward has not played since hobbling out of Portugal's Euro 2016 final triumph against France, and young midfielder Renato Sanches was also absent for this friendly.

However, after scoring twice himself, Nani insisted he and his team mates have again shown they can still perform when their star men are missing.

"I am very pleased with the team performance," he said. "I think we did a good job but we are aware that the next game [a World Cup qualifier against Switzerland] will be much more difficult and certainly we will have to give much more.