Two matches on the bench - that is the price Cristiano Ronaldo was clearly not prepared to pay. After the game against Norway, which he spent without setting foot on the pitch, and after the coach confirmed he would not play against Denmark either, the all-time top scorer in Portugal's national team history packed his bags and left the camp.

The news did not come from the federation but from Ronaldo himself, on social media. "After the national coach's press conference and after a conversation with the president of the Portuguese Football Federation, I have decided to leave the national team camp," the Al-Nassr player wrote. No details, no accusations by name - but with a sentence that sounds more like a declaration of war than a goodbye.

"At the right time I will tell all Portuguese people the truth about the reasons that led to my departure from the national team, to which I have always been devoted," Ronaldo said. And he added: "Now is the moment to wish good luck to Portugal and to all my teammates, without exception." That "without exception" is the most interesting part of the whole post. When someone stresses so hard that they are making no exceptions, they usually have someone in particular in mind.

The post drew thousands of reactions. One of them came from Georgina Rodríguez, who left just a single heart under the message and then shared the photo Cristiano had posted with the statement: him, in a national team hoodie, serious, against a dark background. Not a single word - but in Ronaldo's world, even a heart is a statement.

Family is what he leans on when things on the pitch don't go his way. Ronaldo lives in Riyadh, where he moved with Georgina and the children after signing for Al-Nassr: Cristiano Jr. (16), twins Eva and Mateo (9), Alana Martina (8) and the youngest, Bella Esmeralda (4). Last August the two finally said "I do" at an intimate ceremony at their new home in Cascais, after a decade together.

The question now dividing Portugal is simple: is this the end of the longest national team story in the country's history, or just another round in an old champion's fight against time? Coaches come and go, legends stay - or so the legends think. How much weight the "truth" he has announced will carry depends on how long he waits to tell it.