🚨 EXCLUSIVE — A former footballer close to Cristiano Ronaldo on how he planned his Portugal farewell:
“Cristiano had already decided he wasn’t coming back. What he hadn’t decided was how to leave.
“Some of the former players closest to him were quite firm about it. One told him, ‘You’ve given them everything. You don’t need to go back and explain yourself again.’
“His answer was, ‘I’m not going back to explain myself. But I’m not leaving people thinking they have to choose between me and Portugal.’
“That was the part he kept coming back to.
“He knows there are supporters around the world who started watching Portugal because of him. People who bought the shirt because his name was on the back. He couldn’t control how they would react, but he didn’t want his last contribution to the national team to be a reason for them to turn against it.
“There was a conversation where someone said, ‘Whatever you say, some of your supporters will still be angry.’
“He said, ‘Then at least let them hear from me that I still want Portugal to win.’
“Behind the scenes, the discussions with the federation were about finding a way to close the situation without another public confrontation. There were things he wanted understood, and things the federation wanted settled. Neither side needed another statement that would require three more statements to explain it.
“Accepting the punishment was part of allowing that process to finish. Publicly, the possibility of another call-up remained open. Privately, the people closest to him understood that an apology, a reconciliation and a return to the squad were three different things.
“One of them asked him directly, ‘If they call you when the suspension is over, what are you going to say?’
“He replied, ‘They’ll know before they have to make that decision.’
“That explains the timing. He wanted the announcement made before the next selection became a public debate about whether the manager should pick him. He didn’t want another squad list turning into a referendum on his career.
“The commercial side mattered to the people handling the departure, too. His relationship with Portugal reaches far beyond the dressing room. But when that was raised with him, he brought the conversation back to something much simpler.
“‘My family will still be watching. My children will still support Portugal. Why would I ask anybody else to stop?’
“That is why the retirement message keeps returning to his affection for the country. Those passages are doing a very deliberate job. He wanted supporters to understand that his decision to stop playing did not come with a request for them to stop caring.
“He was advised that he could say more about what had happened. His response was that he had already said what he needed to say to the people involved.
“The public message had another purpose.
“He wanted to leave without spending the next international break watching his own supporters celebrate a Portugal defeat. Whether everybody accepts that is beyond him. Making his position clear was not.”
I asked for wisdom, and resilience to continue to serve the people and I know that has been granted, prior to 2023 elections I did the same thing.
I asked Allah to bless my Umrah and He did, and I came back to thank Him."
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu recounts experience after being granted the rare privilege of entering the inner chambers of the Holy Kaaba in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, after performing the Umrah (lesser Hajj).
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has reported a security incident with an estimated impact of $6.3 billion, saying preliminary investigations suggest a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop may have allowed an attacker to submit unauthorised withdrawal transactions.
TINUBU'S NIGHTMARE: The APC House Is On Fire
This is no longer politics. This is war. And it is happening inside Tinubu's own house.
The biggest, messiest intra-party fight in the APC is raging right now, and all the gladiators are Tinubu's own men.
Let me break it down for you:
THE ACTORS:
1. HOPE UZODIMMA: The President's blue-eyed boy. His second term as Imo Governor is winding down and his next dream is clear - Senate. Not just to go to the Senate, but to TAKE OVER the Senate. He secured the APC ticket in his constituency until this morning that it was squashed by the court, and word on the street is he wants Akpabio's seat - the Senate Presidency.
But Hope has another enemy: Wike. Wike accuses Hope of meddling in Rivers politics and secretly backing Fubara during their brutal fight. So Wike has vowed to block Hope's Senate ticket by all means. His weapon? A shadowy outside group called the 'Rainbow Coalition'.
2. ROCHAS OKOROCHA: From the SAME senatorial zone as Hope. Rochas claims HE won the APC senatorial primary, but that Hope hijacked it. He went to court. And this morning, drama: The court disqualified Hope Uzodimma and declared Rochas Okorocha as the authentic candidate.
Hope can still go to the Court of Appeal, but the damage is done.
3. WIKE: The FCT strongman. Tinubu's most prized outsider-inside. Loyal to a fault, but loyal on his own terms.
4. AKPABIO: The Senate President. Tinubu's alleged rubber stamp in the Red Chamber. The man who has swallowed everything to make Tinubu's agenda sail through.
And Rochas? Just a bystander who has now become the kingmaker.
NOW HERE IS TINUBU'S NIGHTMARE - CHECKMATE EVERYWHERE:
This is a trap with no good option for the President.
SCENARIO A: If Tinubu backs his beloved boy Hope and uses federal might to help him win at the Appeal Court...
Will Wike still work for Tinubu? Wike is not a man you betray and expect to smile. If his arch-rival Hope is imposed, Wike could sabotage everything in Rivers, FCT and the entire South-South. You know Wike - when he pulls out, he doesn't just pull out, he pulls the rug.
SCENARIO B: If Tinubu is seen to be in Hope's camp, what happens to Akpabio?
Akpabio will feel stabbed in the back. This is a man who has endured insults of being called a 'rubber-stamp' just to please Tinubu. And now you want to bring his replacement right under his nose? If Akpabio feels betrayed, who will deliver Akwa Ibom for Tinubu in 2027? That state will be in play for the opposition overnight. His morale will die.
Tinubu is boxed in.
Hope won't step down - he sees Senate President in his future.
Wike won't step down - he sees betrayal and wants revenge.
Akpabio won't step down - he sees his throne threatened.
Rochas won't step down - he now has a court judgment in his pocket.
All of them see Tinubu as weak, distracted, and desperate for 2027. So they are digging in. No one wants to shift.
For the first time, Tinubu is not fighting Atiku or Obi. He is fighting his own loyalists. And any move he makes, one of his pillars will collapse.
How does he survive this without becoming collateral damage in his own party?
This is no longer 2023 politics. This is survival politics.
The next days and hours will reveal everything.
Watch this space. APC is about to test if Tinubu is truly a master strategist or amala political strategist or just a lucky beneficiary.
What do you think?
Tino ✍️
@VITALIS_77@jon_d_doe Wow, what a crazy. Toto wahala. AJD please give the special counsel. This type is beyond us oooo.
The consequences of saying the truth will be very severe but I will advise he ends the sex and threaten the gf that he will expose her if such ever happens again.
@VITALIS_77@jon_d_doe Wow, what a crazy. Toto wahala. AJD please give the special counsel. This type is beyond us oooo.
The consequences of saying the truth will be very severe but I will advise he ends the sex and threaten the gf that he will expose her if such ever happens again.