Cristiano Ronaldo's enemies: who makes the Man Utd star's list?

FT Desk

• Updated: 17 Aug 2022 03:22 CDT
• 5 min read

Cristiano Ronaldo is keeping a book. After a summer in which he has dominated column inches, the Manchester United man is sick of the "lies" being told about him.

Ronaldo has been widely reported to be seeking a route out of Man Utd, with his Champions League goal record cited as a primary motivation.

There has also been visible tension with Erik ten Hag, meanwhile, most notably in last Saturday's 4-0 humiliation by Brentford.

🤬 Angry Ronaldo snubs Ten Hagpic.twitter.com/wFI3tck1ci

— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) August 13, 2022

But Ronaldo is having none of it, posting to his Instagram account that: "The media is telling lies. I have a notebook and in the last few months of the 100 news they made, only 5 were right."

Ronaldo is one of the greatest players of all time, with 815 senior career goals, five Ballons d'Or, five Champions League and a European Championships triumph with Portugal, but it is not all sunshine and rainbows for the 37-year-old.

Football Transfers picks out five of his biggest career enemies...

1) The media

Ronaldo has a love-hate relationship with the media. In a British context, it is akin to the tabloid press's relationship with the Royal Family: good or bad, the mere mention of Ronaldo will help newspapers fly off the shelves.

Ronaldo was the first person to see his social media following pass 500 million followers across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, but the 24-hour coverage inevitably leads to some friction.

"Impossible not to talk about me for one day," he posted recently. "Otherwise the press makes no money. You know that if you don't lie you can't get people's attention. Keep going that one day you get some news right."

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2) Barcelona

The prime years of Ronaldo's career were spent with Real Madrid, where he scored a barely fathomable 450 goals in just 438 games, not to mention his 131 assists in all competitions.

Twenty of his goals came against Real's Clasico rivals Barcelona, and he had run-ins with more than one of their number.

Ronaldo and Gerard Pique were teammates at Man Utd prior to leaving for Spain, but their relationship quickly soured, with Pique regularly winding Ronaldo up and imitating his "calma" celebration. Ronaldo even pushed coach Pep Guardiola when Barca beat Real 5-0 in 2010. Pep later snubbed Ronaldo at that year's Ballon d'Or ceremony.

Much was made of Ronaldo's career rivalry with Lionel Messi, but there was always mutual respect - if not outright friendship - between the two, that the Portuguese didn't share with some others at Camp Nou.

3) FIFA

FIFA may have presented Ronaldo with six of his individual awards during his career, but their former president Sepp Blatter caused shockwaves when he seemed to speak out against the Portuguese ahead of the 2013 Ballon d'Or.

"Football is about the difference between stars," he said. "Lionel Messi is a good boy that every father, every mother would like to have at home. He is very quick, he is not exuberant, he plays well, he is a good boy. That is what makes him so popular, because he is this nice man and that is why he gets votes.

"The other one [Ronaldo], he is something else, he is like a commander on the field of play. This is the other side of football and it is good to have such commanders on the field also. That gives life to football.

"One has more expenses for the hairdresser than the other, but that doesn’t matter."

4) England

Wayne Rooney is also a former teammate of Ronaldo's, and the pair tore things up in the final third for the Red Devils between 2004 and 2009, but their relationship nearly came undone at the 2006 World Cup.

England met Portugal in the quarter-finals and the game was on a knife-edge until Rooney stamped on Ricardo Carvalho. While the Chelsea man writhed in agony, Ronaldo was the player who protested most vociferously to referee Marcelo Elizondo, and Rooney was Duly sent off.

The thing that ranked most was the then-winger's wink to the bench, which was caught on camera and seen by millions worldwide.

Fortunately for Ronaldo, Rooney squashed the beef on their return to Carrington. "I think he was relieved!" Rooney later told Amazon Prime. "Other players might have had an issue with him, but I've got no issue whatsoever. My focus was on Manchester United."

United duly won the league.

5) Erik ten Hag?

Ronaldo may be keen to distance himself from recent reports, but his behaviour in regard to his new manager is plain for all to see.

Ronaldo and Rafa Benitez previously came to blows when the Spaniard was Real Madrid coach and handed the player a USB stick with tips on how to lose his marker, and Ronaldo has looked just as unwilling to listen to Ten Hag so far.

When the Dutchman tried to talk tactics to Ronaldo in United's final pre-season friendly against Rayo Vallecano, he simply shrugged at his manager before leaving the stadium at half-time.

Benched for the Brighton game, Ronaldo had 90 goalless minutes against Brentford, and this time when he left the field he completely ignored Ten Hag.

Ronaldo can be an abrasive character, and the Dutch tactician will need to get him in line quickly if things are to work out at Old Trafford. Only five media claims may have been right, but that one surely is.