Gary Neville has suggested Fernando Santos let Cristiano Ronaldo down by not building his Portugal team around him during a turbulent World Cup campaign.
Ronaldo exited football's biggest stage in tears after Portugal were stunned by Morocco in the quarter-finals, having been dropped from the starting line-up in the two knockout games.
The 37-year-old had managed just one goal in three starts during the group stages in Qatar and reacted angrily when Santos substituted him off early in the defeat to South Korea.
That led to Ronaldo, whose Manchester United contract was terminated last month to leave him searching for a new club, benched for the last-16 game with Switzerland.
To compound matters, his replacement in attack, the 21-year-old Benfica player Goncalo Ramos, scored a hat-trick in a 6-1 win.
Ramos kept his place for the quarter-final against Morocco but Santos threw on Ronaldo in the 51st-minute in an unsuccessful attempt to reverse a 1-0 deficit.
That led to Santos, 68, being sacked after eight years at the helm which included Portugal's Euro 2016 triumph.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Neville contrasted the situation with Ronaldo and Portugal to that of finalists Argentina and their talisman Lionel Messi.
'Messi has been managed by Argentina in terms of how the rest of the group have come around him, and they completely play to his strengths,' he said.
'Whereas with Portugal and with Santos having known Cristiano for so long, I thought he'd have done the same.
'It feels to me like something has happened within the tournament that's meant the plan has changed and Santos has thought, "I need to leave you out."
'But once you leave Cristiano out, it's not just leaving another player out. It becomes a global story.
'I actually felt sorry for Cristiano in the end, when he was walking down that tunnel in tears. That's never a good image.
'You know he's thinking, "this is it, I'm never going to play in this tournament again."
'I wouldn't class it as an underachievement from Ronaldo, I'd say it's an overachievement that he's doing what he's doing at the age of 37, it's just the way it ended with him being out of the team.'
Ronaldo this week spent two days training with former club Real Madrid in a bid to keep up his fitness as he looks for a new club. He has since headed to Dubai, according to reports.
He has been a free agent since mutually terminating his United contract following his explosive interview with Piers Morgan in which he accused the club of 'betraying' him.
One interested party in Ronaldo's services is reportedly Antero Henrique, head of the Qatar Stars League.
Henrique is said to have gone straight to Ronaldo - above his agent Jorge Mendes - to express an interest in bringing him back to the gulf nation following the World Cup.
He is hoping Ronaldo will join a Qatari club but Mendes is working on a different proposal it has been claimed.
There had also been reports that Ronaldo could join Saudi Arabian side Al Nassr on January 1.
But sources close to Ronaldo told Sportsmail reports of a deal being complete were 'nonsense'.
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Messi receiving all the supports in the world is the reason he's still going strong. People hate Ronaldo so much that's what's causing his resend downfalls
In an African adage/saying, it’s stated that “He who climbs a good tree is supported by the masses to end well”. So when Ronaldo was doing things right, he was hyped by the media more than any human being in this earth. I don’t know why his fans claim media is against him, when in football history he is the one who got more media attention and support than any other player in the world. English media made Ronaldo famous and Perez paid Spanish media to just to hype him more because of the Madrid Barca rivalry, when Barca does not have time paying any media to hype Messi because his skill and talent spoke for him. Ronaldo has more social media followers than Messi so when we talk about a Media person, Ronaldo is the media guy. Messi doesn’t have personal media man who he calls to grant interviews; Ronaldo has. Ronaldo is always granting interviews talking about he being the greatest of all time, golden boot is more valuable than Balon D’or, but turns to say he wants to win more Balon D’or than Messi before he retires and so on. Ronaldo is the one helped more by media and not by overall performance. So you guys should stop crying like babies and let him understand he is old and can’t perform at the highest level so he should find some Arabian club and join to make more money because the Messi he has tried to overtake for the past 15years is far better than him.