The 31-year-old Real Madrid ace failed to respect the etiquette of the press room as he claimed his prize and made a swift exit following a day of dramatically mixed fortunes
Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo did not answer any questions from the media in the traditional press conference held for the player named Man of the Match in Euro 2016 fixtures.
Although the Real Madrid striker, who scored twice and provided one assist as his side fought back to secure qualification to the last 16 following a 3-3 draw with Hungary, did appear in front of the press, he did so over an hour after full-time and did not field any queries from the floor.
After major international fixtures, it is expected that the game’s outstanding player face the press to answer two or three brief questions, but instead the 31-year-old simply gave a statement.
“It’s a privilege to be named man of the match. But our priority was to win the match. We failed to do that,” he said.
“The bottom line was we wanted to qualify. We thought we were going to qualify in second place but Iceland scored in the last minute, so we placed third. We wanted to win, but we didn’t.
“We played a good match – it was a little insane, first they scored and then we did.
“I’m happy because the team was in dire straits as we were down three times and had to chase down our opponents to score to ensure we did not go home.”
Although the media shouted questions towards the star after his brief statement, Ronaldo simply said that it was a decision down to Portugal’s media officer: “It’s not up to me,” he said.
This latest controversy comes in the aftermath of the forward throwing a television presenter’s microphone into a lake during a pre-match walk on Wednesday.
<<Print>>