Everyone Going Bonkers! Ronaldo Breaks Ranks, Messi Breaks Hearts, as the Game Itself Needs a Fix

So, finally, the international break, which broke new ground by lasting 16 days and taking in four games, ended. Here’s a quick breakdown of what happened:

• Cristiano Ronaldo divided a nation when he left the Portugal camp in a huff over manager Jorge Jesus’ alleged broken promises and broken trust. After a few days, Ronaldo broke his silence on Instagram, apologising for his actions, accepting any potential punishment but also saying that Jesus had broken his word. Who knows whether the pair of them will break bread before the next international break in November?

  For the background to Portugal’s changing fortunes, read how Portugal climbed to fifth in the FIFA rankings. Ronaldo’s account of the dispute was also covered by The National.

• By contrast, Lionel Messi brought the whole of Argentina together; an entire country broke down in tears as he called time on his international career on an emotional night in Buenos Aires. Record-breaker Messi, who broke sweat for his country over 200 times, scored in a 3-0 win against Benin. The man deserves a nice break. Oh, right, he played for Inter Miami on Saturday.

  For more on his extraordinary career, see The Sports Encounter’s tribute exploring 100 things that explain Messi’s greatness.

• The Manchester City financial rule-breaking saga rumbled on.

• Quite a few players (Mbappé, Havertz, Gakpo, Fernandes, Haaland) returned to their clubs a little bit broken.

Finally, it was the weekend, and a nation was able to get its Premiership fix:

• The fixture list had a bit of fun by sending Manchester City to Liverpool, who could claim to have been cheated out of a title or two by City’s alleged wrongdoing.

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• Manchester United’s owners are in a bit of a fix: after their bad start to the season, do they stick with Carrick or begin the cycle all over again? Fourteen reasons why Carrick’s revival has stalled might give them something to think about.

• It’s a bit early to say that Chelsea have fixed their defensive problems, but they did look a lot more stable with Moisés Caicedo and Jordan Henderson paired together in midfield. Chelsea’s 5-1 win over Bournemouth certainly offered encouragement.

• Away from the Premiership, people might say that I’m fixated with hair (see last week’s column), but Vinícius Jr. was shown a straight red for pulling the hair of Nathan Saliba in Real Madrid’s 1-0 win over Villarreal. Reuters reported the incident and Vinícius’ subsequent apology.

So, there we have it: football, which is supposed to bring people together, seems hellbent on dividing us at the moment, and instead of fixing problems, wants to drop the ball and break things.