The sentence Cristiano Ronaldo wanted Portugal’s head coach to read out at a press conference compared him to Pelé and Diego Maradona.

It was point six on a script of eight that Ronaldo says he and Jorge Jesus agreed in the days after the forward warmed up for more than half an hour against Norway on 27 September and was never brought on. The line read: “I made a mistake by putting someone of the stature of Pele or Maradona on to warm up and then not putting him in the game.”

That was Ronaldo’s own description of himself, placed in his coach’s mouth. He validated the full text before Jesus walked into the pre-match press conference in Denmark.

Jesus did not read it. His press conference on 29 September contradicted what Ronaldo believed had been agreed, and the 41-year-old left the Portugal camp before the Nations League fixture against Denmark.

Read also: “Much, much better”: Mikel Arteta delivers encouraging Arsenal injury update

‘I can promise whatever I want. I’m the coach’

Jesus’s own position was blunter than any script.

“I can promise whatever I want. I’m the coach,” he told reporters, adding that “no player will ever change my ideas.”

In the five-page statement he published on 6 October, Ronaldo accused Jesus of breaking his word twice. The first time, he said, was being told on the day of the Norway game that he would get 30 minutes and never leaving the touchline. The second was the pre-agreed statement that never came.

Ronaldo apologised to the squad.

Read also: Less than £3m, nearly 1,800 homes: Manchester reopens the file on City’s owners

“I owe my national team teammates an apology for leaving the training camp. Despite the absolute breach of trust in the coach’s word … I should not have done it,” he wrote.

Ronaldo faces one to six months

The Portuguese Football Federation opened disciplinary proceedings on 9 October and placed Ronaldo under a provisional suspension, with the case designated urgent. Under Article 160 of the federation’s regulations, abandoning national team duty without justification carries a ban of one to six months plus a fine.

Ronaldo has said he will accept whatever the federation imposes and that he is not retiring from international football.

Rooney: ‘beyond anything I’ve ever seen’

Wayne Rooney, speaking on The United Stand, did not spare his former Manchester United teammate.

Read also: Vinicius Jr caught raging at Mourinho before Real Madrid’s stunning comeback

“To undermine your manager, undermine your teammates the way he has, it was just so wrong,” Rooney said.

“You can’t tell a manager what he’s got to say. That just goes beyond anything I’ve ever seen.”

Read also: ‘Incredibly fast’: Rossi braces for Verstappen on the F1 champion’s GT3 debut