Cristiano Ronaldo’s sister, Elma Aveiro, has slammed Portugal boss Fernando Santos for “humiliating” her brother by surprisingly dropping him for the last-16 clash against Switzerland.
Ronaldo was replaced by Goncalo Ramos in the Portugal line-up and the Benfica striker justified his inclusion by netting a sensational hat-trick in his side’s 6-1 demolition of Switzerland. The win sets up a quarter-final clash with Morocco, who beat Spain on penalties earlier on Tuesday.
Yet a lot of the focus has been on Ronaldo as his girlfriend Georgina Rodriguez aimed a sarcastic dig at the Portugal boss for overlooking her partner for selection.
Georgina – who watched on from the stands – took to Instagram after the match to write: “Congratulations Portugal. While the 11 players sang the national anthem all the cameras were on you. What a shame we were not able to enjoy the best player in the world for 90 minutes. The crowd didn’t stop calling for you and shouting your name.”
She has also been joined in criticism of Santos by Elma Aveiro, Ronaldo’s sister. She initially had posted a message yesterday evening, writing on her Instagram story: “Today we are all together, if you think it has to be like this I am here to see it.”
After one of her followers replied saying that they ‘couldn’t believe’ Ronaldo had been dropped and called it a ‘major injustice’, Elma amplified that message and responded: “I don’t know why and I don’t understand it, but I’m sure we’ll have the answers from God later, he doesn’t fail, let’s see.”
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Elma then posted another story after the match, when it became clear that Ronaldo was not injured and had indeed been dropped. She congratulated Portugal on the victory, but then turned critical of the decision to exclude her brother from the line-up.
She wrote: “Yes Ronaldo is not eternal, yes Ronaldo won’t play forever, unfortunately he doesn’t score goals now, he’s old, Portugal doesn’t need Ronaldo [clapping emojis]. We talked about what we heard, all that he did isn’t important, all that he did was forgotten.
“Now they ask for forgiveness and they don’t need him. I will register that and later we’ll talk. Rui Santos, what will he apologise for? Now we can f*** who we want. It is a shame to humiliate a man who has given so much, but later I will see a lot more.”
Ramos will be hopeful of retaining his place up front for Portugal ahead of Ronaldo for the remainder of the tournament as they prepare to take on Morocco – the only remaining African nation at this year’s World Cup – in the last eight.
