Video: Regragui cites the reverence for Messi to defend Ronaldo

The Portuguese never wanted to run and fight for Ronaldo.

Walid Regragui, the former coach of the Moroccan national team, has waded into Cristiano Ronaldo's crisis with Portugal.

The website Foot Mercato carried his remarks from an appearance on Football Club on Canal Plus, where he delivered a blunt verdict on the saga.

Regragui said: "Ronaldo has given a great deal, as the status acquired by many Portuguese players, and by Portuguese football as well, is down to Cristiano."

He continued: "That does not give him the right to do whatever he wants, but I believe that everything in this final stage has been handled badly. I think they should have sat down with him and told him: listen, we have to stop here."

There was another layer to it, too. He noted: "On top of that, the coach is someone Ronaldo had previously worked with at his club Al-Nassr, and they must have spoken beforehand about whether or not he would continue on the journey. Both parties have harmed themselves, and that is regrettable."

Regragui then went further, setting Ronaldo's standing in Portugal against Lionel Messi's in Argentina. The gap, to his mind, is glaring.

He stressed: "I think Ronaldo, driven by pride, also wants to reach 1,000 goals, and perhaps he wants to achieve that in the Portugal shirt. But the end result is that it gives a negative image."

"What I want to say is that this would never have happened in Argentina," he added. "The reverence that Argentinians have for Messi, and that the players have towards him as well, I have never felt that the Portuguese have anything like it for Ronaldo at all."

His closing line cut deepest: "The Portuguese have never wanted to run and fight for Ronaldo, whereas the Argentinians accepted that with Messi, even at the last World Cup. In Portugal, that was not acceptable at all."