The Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) ruled on Monday on Cristiano Ronaldo’s walkout from the national team camp, and the numbers alone did the mocking.
A €255 fine. A 30-day international suspension that runs out before Portugal’s next window. The world’s highest-paid footballer slapped on the wrist by his own federation.
The disciplinary council found that Ronaldo “intentionally committed an offence under Article 160(1)” of federation regulations, according to Al Jazeera’s report on the ruling.
Then the math took over. Al-Nassr pays Ronaldo a base of €208 million per year, with bonuses pushing the total toward €250 million, as detailed in Goal’s coverage. Spread across a 365-day year, €255 lands in his account in about 38 seconds. That is 0.00012% of his annual income.
Portuguese newspaper A Bola, hardly a hostile outlet, titled its coverage “Time for maths” and summed up the global response in a single word: “Ridiculous.”
‘What’s even the point of a €255 fine?’
The reaction online was pure derision. Pulse Sports collected a wave of fan posts tearing into the FPF’s figure.
“€255? He makes that in 2 seconds!”
“A 255 euro fine? Impressive the toughness of the Portuguese Federation, I don’t know if Cristiano Ronaldo will be able to withstand such a harsh economic penalty.”
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“Am reading this right? €255? Not thousand or million??? And he suggested it himself?? Are we a joke to you all???”
That last line pointed at the detail Ronaldo himself had added fuel to. According to Pulse Sports, he had already apologised publicly for walking out and asked the federation to punish him.
A ban that fits inside October
The dispute goes back to Portugal’s base in Copenhagen before a Nations League match against Denmark. Ronaldo, left as an unused substitute against Norway, accused Jorge Jesus of twice breaking his word about his role, and left camp.
Jesus denied making any such agreement. Portugal beat Denmark 2-1 without him, and the coach kept the door open to a recall.
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The disciplinary council applied the ban retroactively to October 1, the day after Ronaldo walked out of camp on September 30, Goal reported. By the time the ruling was handed down on October 19, Ronaldo had already served nearly three weeks of it.
That leaves the suspension expiring inside October. Portugal’s next international window opens in November, with fixtures against Denmark on the 14th and Wales on the 17th, per Goal.
Al Jazeera noted that the FPF statement “did not specify which matches or activities the suspension would cover, or whether time already served under a provisional suspension would count towards the 30-day sanction.” Jesus will name his next Portugal squad before either of those November matches.
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