Carlos Queiroz's outspoken nationalism has apparently been quelled by his appointment as Portugal's national coach.
In a dramatic climbdown, Queiroz, recently departed from his post as Manchester United assistant manager, yesterday declared himself neutral on the matter of whether Cristiano Ronaldo should remain in England or move to Spain and join Real Madrid. "As a national team coach and being attached to the Portuguese football federation, we must not interfere with relations that are professional between our players and clubs. We should not even have an opinion about that," he told reporters.
Queiroz's newly-declared neutrality was in stark contrast to his commentary in May when he warned Madrid: "Cristiano Ronaldo will never be Spanish, as they will never take Olivenca [the border town whose nationality is disputed by the two countries] again.
"They already did the same with Christopher Columbus, and it now seems they want to naturalise Cristiano Ronaldo," Queiroz continued. "Have they already forgotten what we did to them in the past?"
Instead it is Queiroz who has apparently forgotten events of less than two months ago.
Your Comments
serialmatrix
"ROBDOLPHIN66 - "austinmaguire, i agree. it's a shame Slur Aleksh doesn't conduct himself in the same way." Scolari didn't comment on Ronaldo's situation. When he took over at Chelsea he confirmed that he was never quoted on the issue and the media simply made it up. God forbid they'd ever do a thing like that."
serialmatrix
"He has to say that now that he's an international manager. It's not a case of him betraying United or not standing by what he said while still with United."
smspain
"He is still a decent guy in my books. If he fails though, should he really be allowed back at OT for a third spell???"
thecremster
"yeah but Griff its not very professional to raise historical national issues that could inflame supporters over football. Mentioning Christopher Columbus and what the portuguese did to the in the past is extreme to say the least and totally irrelevant. If he wasn't a backroom member of your club then you may have seen it in a less biased view. It wasnt professional and now he's backtracking"
Griff
"shatnersbassoon, I don't think you're taking into account that professionalism doesn't necessarily imply rational calmness or even good grace. When he was at United, of course we wanted him fighting our corner. That's professionalism -- he was doing his job by trying to counter the destabilizing effects of Real Madrid, Marca and the constant barrage of speculation most of the British press too. Now he's gone he's not saying anything because it's no longer anything to do with him, i.e. he's doing right by his new employers by not occupying his mind with matters at Old Trafford."
shatnersbassoon
"Quite why the Man U fans are praising the guys professionalism for not gobbing off, I would argue that this is the least he could be expected to do in a new job. Where this professionalism was when he was sounding off about 'robbers' & Christopher Columbus when he was His Masters Voice I'm not sure. "
Mikey_Stop
"Isn't it a bit late to keep his opinion to himself when he's already blurted it out to everyone? Nice to see his opinion changes from one extreme to the other depending on who's paying his wages. What a fine upstanding man. Wonder if he's ever heard of self respect."
Colly22
"wendell, well aid mate, also the fact that we did the double has not been mentioned at all! We did the double hooooorayyy!!!!"
wendell
""What's with all this Queiroz/Ronaldo jibber jabber a United legend has a testimonial in a few weeks time,start talking positive."
ROBDOLPHIN66
"It is just a shame that Scolari couldn't show such professionalism when he was the Portugese manager."
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