{"id":101721,"date":"2026-04-04T12:00:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T12:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/2026\/04\/04\/jorge-jesus-shuts-down-cristiano-ronaldo-is-selfish-claims-from-fans-reveals-why-portugal-star-agreed-to-be-subbed-off-in-al-nassrs-5-2-win-international-sports-news\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T12:00:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T12:00:05","slug":"jorge-jesus-shuts-down-cristiano-ronaldo-is-selfish-claims-from-fans-reveals-why-portugal-star-agreed-to-be-subbed-off-in-al-nassrs-5-2-win-international-sports-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/2026\/04\/04\/jorge-jesus-shuts-down-cristiano-ronaldo-is-selfish-claims-from-fans-reveals-why-portugal-star-agreed-to-be-subbed-off-in-al-nassrs-5-2-win-international-sports-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Jorge Jesus shuts down \u201cCristiano Ronaldo is selfish\u201d claims from fans, reveals why Portugal star agreed to be subbed off in Al-Nassr\u2019s 5-2 win | International Sports News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"e9jwa\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"GfdvZ\">\n<section class=\"_bIDB  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  E9tg9\" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"_bIDB\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"ypVvZ\">\n<div class=\"WGttI\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-130017874,imgsize-45936,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/cristiano-ronaldo.jpg\" alt=\"Jorge Jesus shuts down \u201cCristiano Ronaldo is selfish\u201d claims from fans, reveals why Portugal star agreed to be subbed off in Al-Nassr\u2019s 5-2 win\" title=\"Cristiano Ronaldo (Pic Credit: Ronaldo's X Handle)\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Ta7d_ img_cptn\"><span title=\"Cristiano Ronaldo (Pic Credit: Ronaldo's X Handle)\">Cristiano Ronaldo (Pic Credit: Ronaldo&#8217;s X Handle)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/cristiano-ronaldo\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">Cristiano Ronaldo<\/a> made a strong return for Al-Nassr in their 5-2 win over Al-Najma in the Saudi Pro League on April 3. The Portuguese star had been out for nearly a month due to a hamstring injury. Despite the break, he looked sharp on the field.<!-- --> He also looked confident on his comeback. Ronaldo scored twice in the second half. The icon&#8217;s goals helped his team secure a comfortable victory. His performance reminded fans of his importance to the squad.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"4\"\/>However, the big talking point came when Ronaldo was substituted in the 83rd minute. The forward was just one goal away from completing a hat-trick. Many expected him to stay on the field and chase the milestone. <!-- -->But Al-Nassr coach Jorge Jesus later revealed that the decision was made to protect Ronaldo\u2019s fitness. The coach also praised Ronaldo\u2019s attitude and professionalism during the moment.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"9\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>Jorge Jesus explains why Cristiano Ronaldo was subbed off<br \/><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"11\"\/>Al-Nassr coach Jorge Jesus clarified the situation after the match. He explained that Ronaldo had just returned from injury and had missed the previous two matches. Because of this, the coaching staff wanted to be careful with his workload. With Al-Nassr already leading by two goals late in the game, it was the perfect moment to give Ronaldo some rest.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"15\"\/><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"17\"\/>Jorge shared that if the match had been closer, Ronaldo would have stayed on the field until the final whistle. But since the result looked safe, they chose to manage his minutes. The coach also highlighted Ronaldo\u2019s team-first mindset. He said that the star forward could have insisted on staying to complete his hat-trick, but instead accepted the decision calmly and focused on what was best for the team.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"20\"\/>With his statements, Jorge Jesus shut down the recent claims by some fans that Ronaldo has been self-centred on the field. <span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"22\"\/>Ronaldo had scored his first goal from the penalty spot before adding another from open play. His sharp movement and finishing showed that he had fully recovered. The forward was later replaced by Hayder Abdulkareem.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"24\"\/>The Portuguese legend had suffered the injury during a league win over Al-Fayha in February. He even travelled to Madrid to speed up his recovery process. Despite missing international friendlies for Portugal, Ronaldo has now returned to top form. <span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"26\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/sports\/international-sports\/jorge-jesus-shuts-down-cristiano-ronaldo-is-selfish-claims-from-fans-reveals-why-portugal-star-agreed-to-be-subbed-off-in-al-nassrs-5-2-win\/articleshow\/130017884.cms\">Source link <\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cristiano Ronaldo (Pic Credit: Ronaldo&#8217;s X Handle) Cristiano Ronaldo made a strong return for Al-Nassr in their 5-2 win over Al-Najma in the Saudi Pro League on April 3. The&hellip;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":101722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-stories"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/cristiano-ronaldo.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}