“The most important thing is that all the players are focused and can adopt the best possible attitude,” added the man who led Portugal to the European title in 2016. Santos also did not raise the subject with the person concerned, who will celebrate his 192nd appearance with Portugal on Thursday. “I’m not bothered by this situation and Cristiano Ronaldo hasn’t brought it up either.
Fernando Santos, 68, tried to draw a parallel with the 2018 World Cup, where many of his players were in a delicate situation. “In Russia, we had faced a situation where six or seven players had arrived at the World Cup without a club. It was complicated for them.
After multiple questions about the situation of his star striker, Santos also mentioned Ghana, his opponent Thursday in Doha. “They are a super well organized team, able to play very quickly in transition. Ghana have great players and we respect them. We have the ambition to win this World Cup. We dream of it and we have the vision and the abilities to fight to try to achieve that.”