Cristiano Ronaldo dropped a bombshell earlier this week in the form of a shocking interview with Piers Morgan. The interview, which was not authorized by his club Manchester United, was a way for the Portuguese forward to vent out all his frustrations.
He held no prisoners in the stunning interview. Ronaldo claimed that the Red Devils ‘betrayed’ him by treating him poorly since the summer transfer window.
He stated that he missed the pre-season tour of Asia due to his three-month-old daughter being in the hospital and that the United executives didn’t believe it.
Ronaldo stated that he didn’t have any respect for United manager Erik ten Hag, because the gaffer himself doesn’t respect him.
He basically called the club out for lacking ambition and seriousness in competing at the club, stating that there has been no evolution since he left Old Trafford to join Real Madrid in 2009.
His interview has caused an uproar among the fans, who want his contract to be terminated by the Red Devils because of the way how he’s ridiculed and insulted them.
United, however, released an official statement about the interview and claimed that they will not take any action before all facts are revealed.
This means they will only act after the entire interview is released, which should be by the end of the week.
Ronaldo’s comments have divided the fanbase – with some hailing him for exposing the rot within the United system and most lambasting him for publicly shaming the club that helped make him the player he is today.
Fans have called the Portuguese forward out for being a hypocrite in criticizing the team like this after accepting a £500,000-a-week salary package to return to Old Trafford last year.
But one particular comment of Ronaldo’s which has exposed him for being a hypocrite is how he criticized United for being a ‘marketing club’.
He said: “Manchester [United] is a marketing club, they will get its money from the marketing, the sports they don’t really care, in my opinion.” A day after these comments were released, Ronaldo started to promote his new NFT collection on Twitter.
An NFT (Non-Fungible Token) is a cryptographic asset that cannot be copied or imitated. Ronaldo has started a partnership with crypto trade platform Binance for his new NFT, encouraging fans to invest in his ‘special moments’ and basically, make him richer.
The sheer irony with Cristiano calling out United for being a marketing club is that he himself is also the epitome of a marketing footballer.
He collects $1 million for a single promoted post made on Instagram, is associated with tons of brands from around the globe and never shies away from using his popularity to be a profitable marketing product for brands.
It remains to be seen the final decision the Red Devils take on how to act on Ronaldo after his revealing interview.
But after he called the Glazers as owners that don’t care, disrespected Ten Hag and called the club out for poor standards – he’s unlikely to be a United player beyond January 2023.
