Cristiano Ronaldo: will there be a return?

They boo and whistle me because I'm handsome, rich and a good player.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
14 November 2022 Monday 23:34
7 Reads
Cristiano Ronaldo: will there be a return?

They boo and whistle me because I'm handsome, rich and a good player

Cristiano Ronaldo

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As a footballer, the circumstances go against Cristiano Ronaldo.

It will be the age.

He is already 37 years old.

On the field of play, he seems rigid and unwise. Run in very short steps. He overflows little, accelerates less, does not score (three goals in 18 games, never seen in a predator that used to be around the goal per game) and has Erik ten Hag, his coach at Manchester United, desperate, who no longer knows what do with it.

Off the field, Cristiano Ronaldo is demanding and complaining, as if he still lived in the days of the fat cows, when he collected Ballon d'Ors (five) and flew over the world. Perhaps disconcerted, this weekend he gave an interview to the television program Piers Morgan Uncensored to proclaim:

-I don't respect him (Erik ten Hag), because he hasn't respected me. If he doesn't respect me, I'm not going to respect you.

And that's it. To the war.

In reality, the war comes from before, from the past year. The ManU has had the fly behind his ear for a long time: this is not the Portuguese that he had amazed in his first time at Old Trafford, fifteen years ago. The Portuguese of today is a black hole that gobbles up 550,000 euros a week.

Even so, even last season, the war was underhanded, nothing to do with the penultimate heat, the one in mid-October: ManU and Tottenham played (2-0 for the red devils). The game died and Cristiano Ronaldo remained on the bench. Ten Hag ordered him to warm up, preparing him to join him in the 87th minute. Cristiano Ronaldo said no way. He turned around and, wider than he was long, went into the locker room.

The British press said that the Portuguese star had refused to play the "garbage minutes".

The club said that it was not going to stay that way. It is war. Ten Hag set him aside for a match and Cristiano Ronaldo felt "betrayed".

He said that Manchester United had never supported him in his family life – not even when his three-month-old daughter became seriously ill; her twin had died shortly before – and that now he also turned his back on him in the sporting future. Depleted in his innermost heart, he held his own in the last ManU appointments. He played a range of games, almost always at a subdued level, but he said he was ill in the last two, against Aston Villa and Fulham.

And then, this Sunday, he went on fire.

-I feel that there are people in the club who don't want me there. And it's not just something for this year (...) I want the best for this club, but things happen that prevent it from reaching the top level of City, Liverpool and even Arsenal... a club of this size should be among those big three, and it's not. The club has made zero progress since Sir Alex (Ferguson, in 2013) left. And whoever doesn't see him is because he doesn't want to.

In its response yesterday, the ManU limited itself to saying: "We are going to study an answer after we analyze all the facts."