Robert Martinez claims Portugal’s strength lies beyond Cristiano Ronaldo’s star power

Lisbon: Portugal national team’s head coach Roberto Martinez recently opened up about his team’s values.

As per BBC Sports, Martinez emphasises that his team values collective effort, despite the global attention that is usually focused on Cristiano Ronaldo’s achievements.

He said, “What an incredible opportunity we have with players like Ronaldo, with players like Pepe, to develop the young players in the dressing room in the best possible way.”

Martinez went on to share, “We’ve got 10 million population and the amount of players that we have in the highest levels, it speaks volumes of the development that we have in this country and the talent and the mentality and everything comes from examples like Cristiano and Pepe.”

“It changes a lot of mentality when you go abroad and you have to find a way to be important in a dressing room,” he said.

As Portugal prepares to face Scotland in the Nations League, Martinez also praises Scotland’s emerging talent, stating, “I think the experience of Italian football for Scott McTominay and Billy Gilmour is going to take Scottish football into the next level.”

He further emphasised, “Obviously Andrew Robertson, for me, is still one of the best full-backs in European football and you’ve got a lot of players now in the Premier League, like John McGinn, Ryan Christie.”