LUSAIL, Qatar — As referee César Ramos whistled to end the match between Portugal and Switzerland, Cristiano Ronaldo greeted several opposing players, walked to the stands in appreciation of the Portuguese fans and hurried to the locker room.
His Portugal has just destroyed Switzerland 6-1 to qualify for the quarterfinals of the World Cup. But the man who has scored the most goals in national team football and winner of five Ballon d’Ors was not entirely happy on Tuesday night in Qatar.
In a surprising decision, Portuguese coach Fernando Santos relegated the captain to the substitute bench.
The decision came days after the 37-year-old superstar, playing in his fifth and perhaps last World Cup, was substituted 65 minutes into the game against South Korea in a notoriously upset and gesticulating way.
Santos said the day before that he did not like the player’s attitude, but assured that everything had been resolved behind closed doors.
After the victory against Switzerland, Santos was irritated by the repeated questions about the change.
“We have been friends for many years,” the coach said of Cristiano. “Everything is fully arranged and he behaved like a true captain.”
Santos, in charge of Portugal since 2014 — and who in 2016 gave him his first major title by winning the European Championship in France — decided to start with Gonçalo Ramos.
It was a master move, as the 21-year-old attacker delivered with a hat-trick.
Before the start of the game, Cristiano trotted in and received loud cheers from the Portuguese fans. He exercised for a few minutes with the rest of the substitute players and did light jogging.
During the match, Cristiano spent several minutes biting his nails and smiled a few times as the goals fell.
He entered the match at 74. Soon after, he appeared to score his ninth World Cup goal that would have tied Eusebio for the top Portuguese scorer in tournament history, but it was disallowed for clear offside.
Cristiano opened the tournament with a goal against Ghana to become the first player to score in five different World Cups. But he was ineffective in Portugal’s last two group games and was taken midway through the second half of a 2-1 loss to South Korea.
“We’ll have to talk about this team collectively,” Santos said, before referring to Cristiano. “I still consider him to have a very important role in the team.”
That role would be as a stand-in and mentor in the dressing room.
Cristiano smiled as he warmed up at the side of the pitch after Ramos’s second goal.
“As captain, Cristiano did what he always does,” Ramos said. “He spoke to me the way he talks to everyone. He always tries to help and encourage.”
It has been a turbulent World Cup for Cristiano, since in the middle of it he terminated his contract with the departure of Manchester United after an explosive television interview in which he railed against coach Erik ten Hag and the owners of the English club.
At the end of the match, his teammates, who spent a few minutes in the center of the field after the win, all walked together towards the same stands where Cristiano had been to thank the fans, but they did it without him.