Portugal are winning, and Cristiano Ronaldo is somewhere outside the celebration. That is the uncomfortable truth at the heart of Portuguese football today. Jorge Jesus has begun his reign with four wins from four. Portugal have beaten Denmark 4–2 and Norway 2–1 without their captain, qualified for the Nations League quarter-finals and discovered something every great team eventually has to discover: life can move forward even when its biggest name is not on the pitch.

That does not make Ronaldo irrelevant. It makes the situation more serious. For two decades Portugal have lived with the certainty that Ronaldo was the centre of the team. He scored, demanded the ball, carried the pressure and turned the national shirt into part of his own legend. Now, at 41, the team is beginning to prove that it can function without arranging itself around him.

The rupture came in Copenhagen. Ronaldo left the national-team camp after tensions over his role and the prospect of not starting. The federation president and Jesus reportedly tried to persuade him to stay. He left anyway. Portugal then went out and won. They did it again against Norway. Football can be cruel in the simplicity of its verdict. A player leaves. The team wins. Suddenly the argument changes.

It is no longer enough to ask whether Ronaldo is still good enough to play for Portugal. Of course he is capable of scoring. His record makes any casual dismissal absurd. The real question is whether he can return to a side in which selection is no longer automatically built around his status.

Jesus has handled the aftermath carefully. He has not humiliated Ronaldo and he has not shut the door. He has described the episode as a misunderstanding and made clear that a return remains possible. His own position, however, has become much stronger. Four matches, four wins. Qualification secured. Gonçalo Ramos scoring. João Cancelo contributing. João Félix, Vitinha and others carrying responsibility. A coach who might once have feared the consequences of leaving Ronaldo out can now point to results.

That is what makes Portugal’s winning spree so important. The victories are not merely points in a Nations League group. They are changing the internal balance of the national team. The younger players now know that the shirt does not become lighter when Ronaldo is absent. It becomes theirs.

And this may be the most difficult moment of Ronaldo’s international career. He has survived bad tournaments, criticism, benches and changes of manager. What he has rarely had to confront is a Portugal team winning convincingly while he watches from outside. There is no villain required here. Jesus does not need to become the coach who pushed out a national icon. Ronaldo does not need to become the ageing superstar who could not accept change.

There is still a good ending available. Ronaldo can return, score, lead when needed and accept that leadership at 41 may not mean starting every match. Portugal can honour what he has given without surrendering the future to the past. Jesus can use him as a weapon rather than an obligation.

That would be the mature solution. Because Portugal’s recent victories have delivered a message that no speech from a coach could have made more clearly. They can win with Cristiano Ronaldo. They can also win without him.

The next move is his.