Midway through the competition, the 68-year-old decided to bench Ronaldo, but the move against the African team did not result in an uptick in attacking success. Despite Santos' denials of disagreements with Ronaldo, the player's family and friends, starting with partner Georgina Rodriguez, publicly disapproved of him.

“You can’t underestimate the best player in the world, its most powerful weapon," Georgina said in a public message to Santos. She also addressed CR7 and said, “Today your friend and coach made the wrong decision. That friend for whom you have so many words of admiration and respect. The same one who, when putting you on the field, saw how everything changed, but it was too late."

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The decision by Santos to sideline CR7 against Switzerland paid off handsomely as backup Goncalo Ramos scored a hat-trick in a 6-1 victory. But, after crushing Brazil, the Atlas Lions went on to defeat Portugal 1-0, putting an end to Ronaldo's dream of winning the world cup in his career.

However, Santos acknowledged that not everybody agreed with his choices throughout the world cup, which included benching Cristiano Ronaldo in the later games. He said it was “normal" that everyone was not happy with the choices he made. But, he said he had to make some difficult decisions.

Ronaldo's teammate Bruno Fernandes, however, has praised the departing veteran manager. He wrote a heartfelt ode to Portugal's most successful manager ever while appearing to harbour no ill will toward Santos for their performance in Qatar.

““As a Portuguese, thank you for putting Portugal at the top of Europe and returning confidence and belief to a ‘small’ country that it was possible to be among the ‘big ones’," he wrote.

In the upcoming weeks, Portugal will make a substitute announcement. The name of Jose Mourinho is being mentioned among the probable names to replace Santos.