Portugal’s official Instagram account has lost more than 2.1 million followers since Cristiano Ronaldo walked out of the national team camp last week.
The account stood at 24,942,000 followers when the row broke on Wednesday evening. By Monday it showed about 22.8 million.
Comments under the team’s posts showed why many followers left. A Bola reported that fans wrote, “We weren’t following Portugal, we were following Cristiano Ronaldo” and “Now I no longer have to pretend I love Portugal thanks to Cristiano. He was the only good player in this team”.
Ronaldo’s own account has also lost more than 500,000 followers over 15 days, as his future with the national team came into question. He still tops Instagram’s list of most-followed people, with 679 million.
The dispute began after Ronaldo, 41, spent all of _ 2-1 win over Norway on the bench. Coach Jorge Jesus then told a press conference that no player, including Ronaldo, would change his approach.
Ronaldo left the camp in Copenhagen on __ and wrote on Instagram: “Following the national team coach’s press conference, and after having a conversation with the Portuguese Football Federation president, I decided to leave the national team’s training camp.” He said he would tell the Portuguese people the reasons in due course.
Portugal beat Denmark 4-2 in the Nations League on Thursday without him. Rafael Leão wore Ronaldo’s No. 7 shirt.
Portugal has kept the door open for his return. Jesus said, “If he wants to, he’ll return to the national team. We can talk before the next call-up, but Cris is the one who’s going to decide.”
Federation president Pedro Proença called the row “simply a misunderstanding that needs to be resolved internally.”
