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Ronaldo refuses to leave football with dignity
Carlo Garganese
- Updated: 23 May 2023 09:00 CDT
- 5 min read
Cristiano Ronaldo has been embarrassing himself on an almost daily basis this season with his selfish, childish and narcissistic behaviour.
This childish posturing started in pre-season when Ronaldo initially put in a transfer request to leave Manchester United in July.
He wanted to join a club that was in the Champions League and could challenge for major trophies. His agent Jorge Mendes offered him out to numerous clubs around Europe, without finding a taker.
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Then, Ronaldo chose not to go on tour with Man Utd during the summer, citing family reasons. He did not begin training again until the last week of pre-season, playing just one friendly match against Rayo Vallecano. He caused controversy during that game by leaving Old Trafford before the match had finished.
His attitude and body language were also called into question during the first two Premier League matches of the season, a 2-1 home defeat to Brighton and 4-0 loss at Brentford.
At full-time against Brentford he was filmed storming off down the tunnel and not acknowledging manager Ten Hag at full-time.
He then caused more controversy last month by refusing to come on as a substitute in the win over Tottenham, instead walking down the tunnel before the game was over.
He was dropped from the squad for the following game against Chelsea as a result.
Then, just days before the start of the World Cup, arrived the coup de grace.
Ronaldo sat down for a no-holds barred interview with TalkTV journalist Piers Morgan. During that interview, Ronaldo slammed a number of key figures at Man Utd, including current manager Erik ten Hag, past manager Ralf Rangnick, owners The Glazers and club legends Wayne Rooney and Gary Neville.
He accused Ten Hag and others of betraying him and trying to force him out of the club and was heavily critical of the way Man Utd was being run.
This interview led to Man Utd rescinding Ronaldo’s contract, making him a free agent.
Ronaldo controversies at World Cup
But the unprofessional behaviour has only continued at the World Cup with Portugal.
Ronaldo was furious to be taken off for the third successive game during the group match versus South Korea last week. He raised his finger to his lips in order to make a “quiet” gesture, sending an apparent message to his coach Fernando Santos.
Santos was not impressed and slammed Ronaldo in his press conference on Monday. He subsequently dropped him for the last-16 match with Switzerland.
Portugal won 6-1, with Ronaldo’s replacement Goncalo Ramos scoring a hat-trick.
Instead of being a team player, Ronaldo again embarrassed himself by only thinking of himself. He refused to celebrate with his teammates at the end of the game and instead stormed down the tunnel on his own towards the changing room.
There have since been reports on Wednesday that he has refused to train with Portugal’s substitutes, while his sister and girlfriend have blasted the decision to drop him.
Ronaldo is unlikely to start in the quarter-final against Morocco given Portugal and Ramos’ performance without him. You can imagine how Cristiano will react. Will he do another interview with Piers in protest?
The simple truth is that Ronaldo is not only living in his own fantasy world where only he exists but he is also living in denial.
He turns 38 in two months and he can’t accept the fact that his time at the top is over and his body is breaking down.
He is no longer good enough for Man Utd or any other major club - hence why there is no interest from a major Champions League or European team to sign him on a free transfer.
Ronaldo refuses to accept that he has got old just like every footballer does. There is nothing to be ashamed of in that, especially after such a great career.
Instead of bowing out with dignity, Ronaldo continues to embarrass himself at the expense of everyone around him - including himself.
