Ronaldo and Jesus: will love turn to hatred in the final chapter?

The relationship between Ronaldo and Jesus didn't begin with the Portugal national team. It goes back to their spell together at Al-Nassr of Saudi Arabia, where "the Don" was one of the biggest reasons the coach arrived to lead the team, picking up the phone to convince him to take the job last season.

From the very first moment, the bond between the two men rested on a great deal of understanding. It only grew stronger as they steered Al-Nassr to the league title, making Jesus one of the coaches who enjoyed a special relationship with the captain. Ronaldo was no mere player on the pitch. He was an influential piece of the coach's project.

That harmony carried over when Jesus took charge of the Portugal national team. He made a point in his first camp of calling up Ronaldo, then delivered a series of statements praising the captain and affirming his value and influence within the group, a picture that looked like a natural extension of what they'd built at Al-Nassr.

Football knows no fixed relationships once technical decisions start to test them. The match against Norway laid bare, for the first time, an area where Ronaldo's standing could clash with Jesus's vision.

Benching Ronaldo against Norway was no ordinary tweak to the line-up, not least because he'd played more than an hour in the previous match against Wales. Jesus stood by his call. Ronaldo, though, looked unhappy throughout, and it showed on his face more than once.

Jesus refused to duck the issue afterwards. Asked about Ronaldo's behaviour, he said: "I don't know the reason for his reaction, but I will speak with him. I had intended to bring him on for half an hour, but the circumstances of the match made things difficult."

On the surface it was a tactical explanation. Dig deeper and it revealed something more: Jesus had planned to hand Ronaldo roughly half an hour before the game got away from him. That leaves the captain's anger unresolved and crying out for a face-to-face conversation between the pair.

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Here lies the most delicate part of the relationship. A place on the bench is hardly an exceptional event in itself. It's the player's reaction, and the coach's willingness to address it, that turns this into a story worth watching, especially if the same decisions keep coming in the matches ahead.

Ronaldo is no ordinary player within the Portugal national team. He captains the side and remains one of its biggest names, so any decision over his involvement draws more scrutiny than any other tweak to the line-up. Jesus, for his part, carries his own technical responsibility and must make his calls based on what he judges right for the match and the group.

Trouble only starts if those decisions curdle into a source of constant tension between the pair. Their relationship began with a phone call and ended with the title at Al-Nassr, then carried over to the Portugal national team amid mutual praise. Now it enters a different phase, one that demands both men keep the personal separate from the technical.

The final stretch of Ronaldo's career only sharpens the sensitivity around every decision on his involvement. The Portuguese star wants to keep leading his country. Jesus wants to build a team capable of delivering his objectives on his own terms, and that vision may at times force decisions the captain does not want.

What happened against Norway is no proof yet that Ronaldo and Jesus have fallen into open conflict. Portugal won the match, and Jesus made clear he had planned to bring on his captain before the circumstances of the game got in the way. Ronaldo's reaction, though, raises a bigger question: what happens if he finds himself on the bench again?

Their relationship has moved through plenty of stages in a short space of time. It began with Ronaldo's phone call to persuade Jesus to take charge at Al-Nassr, ran through a league title and a reunion with the Portugal national team, took in a string of statements that laid bare the coach's admiration for his captain, and has now arrived at the first moment where Ronaldo looked visibly angry at a technical decision.

The Norway match, then, may prove nothing more than a passing flashpoint. It could equally mark the start of a real test for a bond that until recently looked rock solid.

Post-match statements won't settle it. Jesus's next decisions will, along with how Ronaldo responds to them, especially if the bench becomes a regular home for Portugal's captain.

In this final chapter of Ronaldo's career, the biggest question may not be how many minutes he plays, but how both men manage a relationship between a star used to standing at the centre of everything and a coach now required to make his calls without letting big names bend his vision. So will things between Ronaldo and Jesus stay as they started, all love and success, or will the substitutes' bench open a new chapter between the two?