The president of the Portuguese FA came to defend Cristiano Ronaldo after the captain received a recourse for not attending the funeral of Diogo Jota.
The football world was left a month ago when the news broke out that Jota and his brother Andre Silva were killed in a car accident in North Spain.
The tragic accident came only 11 days after Jota married Rute Cardoso married, also 28, who is the mother of his two sons Dinis, Vier and Duarte, two as well as his baby daughter Mafalda, who is only eight months old.
Ronaldo was the captain of Jota Portugal National Team and many were surprised that he was not present at the funeral that took place in Gondomar a few days later.
Some were more than surprised, with Ronaldo who criticized online because of his absence after Portugal stars such as Bruno Fernandes, Ruben Dias and Bernardo Silva appeared.
The Al-Nassr star would not have made the journey because he did not want his presence to overshadowed the importance of people who express their respect to Jota and his brother.
And Pedro Proenca, president of the Portuguese football federation, has hit the criticism.
“It is incredibly unfair to say that Cristiano has played a more distant role in one way or another,” he said.
'From the start the captain was with us and was one of the people who were most connected to the national team family, with Jota's own blood family.
'And I say it again: what they said about our captain is unfair. Cristiano Ronaldo, he was one of the people who felt it the most, especially because he was a real teammate of Jota.
His physical absence means nothing more than that, because he has never left this family. '