19:26h CEST

Cristiano had already made his decision to leave Real Madrid two months ago. He made his grievances known to his agent, Jorge Mendes and his close circle. The player feels he has been badly treated and unjustly judged over the recent exposure of alleged irregularities with Spanish tax authorities; details of which have been published in all of the national and international newspapers. Cristiano spoke to his inner circle and explained that he has never tried to cheat Spain's tax authorities and the order he has given his fiscal advisors and lawyers is to always follow the law when dealing with his accounts.

His legal avisors managaed to calm his down and explained that the matter was simply down to the changes made by Spain's tax office to the conditions of taxation on sportsmen's image rights. But he was angered by the wave of criticism which compared his case to that of Leo Messi (the High Court recently handed down a 21-month prison sentence to the Barcelona player); that was the final straw for Cristiano who reiterated his threat to leave Spain at the end of the season, as A Bola report.

Full screen Cristiano, pictured on duty with Portugal in Kazan, Russia today. MARIO CRUZ (EFE)

Mendes advised Cristiano to say nothing

The situation became so tense that Jorge Mendes had to convince Cristiano not to say anything in public about the matter until after the Champions League final in Cardiff as to not destablize the team ahead of such a massive game.

But the recent accusations made by Spanish tax authorities that the player defrauded 14.7 million euros in his income tax declarations during the four fiscal years from 2011 to 2014, has enraged him even more. Real Madrid know everything about the situation and hope that Cristiano will have calmed down once he is able to take his holidays after Portugal's Confederations Cup campaign.