Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Football Reporting
Football Reporting

Champions League

Cristiano Ronaldo ‘openly told teammates’ he wanted to leave Man Utd after blunt response


A LOOK BACK: Cristiano Ronaldo decided he wanted to leave Manchester United in 2008 and allegedly set about informing his Red Devils teammates of his intentions

Video Loading

Video Unavailable

Cristiano Ronaldo trains with Man Utd ahead of Villareal test

Cristiano Ronaldo has always been sure of what he wants.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

And it seems he had no problems informing his Manchester United teammates back in 2009 of his intentions to leave the club and join Real Madrid, according to Nani at least.

Ronaldo joined United in 2003 and won three Premier League trophies as well as the Champions League.

He also won the Red Devils’ first Ballon d’Or since George Best in 1968.

But just like that, five years on from his arrival in 2008, the Portugual international decided there was more to explore out in the world and put the wheels in motion to leave United.

Sir Alex Ferguson quickly became aware of the situation and it wasn’t long before Real Madrid were piling the pressure on United to sell.

Is Cristiano Ronaldo Man Utd’s best current player? Have your say in the comments section

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.
Cristiano Ronaldo reportedly informed his teammate Nani of his intention to leave Man United in 2008
(

Image:

Getty Images)

But Ferguson isn’t a man to be pushed around, and his autobiography explained how he regained control and forced Ronaldo to stay at Old Trafford for another season.

Ferguson recalled: “Real Madrid paid £80m in cash for him [in 2009] and do you know why? It was a way for Florentino Perez, their president, to say to the world: ‘We are Real Madrid, we are the biggest of the lot.’

“Ramon Calderon, Perez’s predecessor, had claimed the previous year that Cristiano would one day be a Real Madrid player. I went to Carlos Queiroz’s house in Portugal to find the boy expressing an urge to go to Real Madrid, and told him: ‘You can’t go this year, not after the way Calderon has approached this issue’.

“I said: ‘I know you want to go to Real Madrid but I’d rather shoot you than sell you to that guy now. If you perform, don’t mess us about, and someone comes and offers a world record fee, then we will let you go.’

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

“I did well to calm him down. I told him the reason I was refusing to sell him that year was because of Calderon.

“I said: ‘If I do that, my honour’s gone, everything’s gone for me, and I don’t care if you have to sit in the stands. I know it won’t come to that, but I just have to tell you I will not let you leave this year’”.

Ronaldo wasn’t deterred by the initial setback, though, and despite a rather blunt response from Ferguson continued to pressure his boss to let him leave.

He even informed his United teammates of his intentions, according to Nani.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

“We would stay at the end of training to do competitions and they [Anderson and Ronaldo] were my teammates, everyone has best friends or some they feel more comfortable with and they were my support,” explained Nani.

Cristiano Ronaldo returned to Man United in the summer transfer window
(

Image:

Daily Mirror/Andy Stenning)

“Some days he [Ronaldo] was telling us openly, ‘I’m here six or seven years now, I think it’s enough for me.’ He said that a couple of times.

“But it was always, ‘I will see, I will see, I will see’ but we never thought it [Real Madrid move] would happen so fast. After we won the league in the second year he left, he produced a great season so we were still surprised.”

As history shows, Ferguson indeed kept his side of the bargain and at the end of the 2009 season, Ronaldo was allowed to leave United for Real Madrid.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Read More

Read More





Source link

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like

Manchester United

Lisandro Martinez was missed the majority of the season but the Manchester United centre-half is due to return to the squad for the trip...

Arsenal

“After helping her team into the UEFA Women\u0027s Champions League semi-finals, Chelsea defender Ashley Lawrence has said the players discuss winning a historic women\u0027s...

Manchester United

Manchester United teenagers Zachary Baumann and Jacob Devaney have both trained with the first team this week as the two academy products look to...

AC Milan

Joshua Zirkzee has ended up at the top of AC Milan’s wish list ahead of the summer, with Olivier Giroud expected to say goodbye....