Cristiano Ronaldo shared some brilliant memories with Karim Benzema at Real Madrid before departing the club in 2018. The two helped Los Blancos win four UEFA Champions League titles, including three titles in-a-row. They grew to be very close buddies during the time at the Santiago Bernabeu, but that bromance might now be out of the window.
The Portuguese forward, who recently launched his own YouTube channel that has over 59 million subscribers, recently took part in the ‘Who Is Better’ challenge for footballers. This is a popular social media skit where people are made to choose between players before the ‘best player’ is declared.
What Did Ronaldo Say About Benzema?
At one point of this video, Rio Ferdinand threw a decision at Ronaldo asking him to choose between his ex-Real Madrid partner Benzema or Kylian Mbappe. Without even thinking about it, Cristiano quickly replied ‘Mbappe’ (with a sly smile on his face) over the Al-Ittihad forward despite having never actually played with Kylian in his career.
This has surprised many football fans because the general feeling was that Ronaldo values Benzema’s qualities after playing with him for so many years.
Even some Real Madrid fans have criticized the Portuguese forward for his decision to choose Mbappe over his ex-teammate, labeling him as ‘ungrateful’ because the Frenchman sacrificed a lot to help him score so many goals at the Santiago Bernabeu.
There is some speculation that Benzema might’ve gone into Ronaldo’s bad books because the Frenchman praised Lionel Messi a few years ago. Karim had told TF1 after Messi’s move to PSG, saying: “In fact, he who criticises Messi, knows nothing about football.”
How Did Benzema Respond To Ronaldo?
Interestingly, it appears that Benzema might’ve actually been triggered by Ronaldo claiming him to be inferior to Mbappe and posted a very interesting image on his Instagram story soon afterward.
A few days after the Portuguese star’s comment, the Frenchman decided to simply post a picture of his Ballon d’Or trophy on his Instagram.
It’s clear from watching the trophy on top of his dining table that he probably had to clean it up a little bit to show everyone that he is a Ballon d’Or winner after all.
This could actually even be a sly dig at Mbappe, who has not been able to win the prestigious trophy in his career so far and aspires to do so by excelling at Real Madrid.
Even though Kylian has been nominated for the 2024 Ballon d’Or top-30 list, he’s likely to miss out on the trophy to his current Real Madrid teammate Vinicius Jr.
While Benzema didn’t write anything in his surprise Instagram story of the Ballon d’Or, it is being widely perceived as a response to Ronaldo’s comments.
Some of Cristiano’s fans have found this to be funny, replying back with the jibe that Ronaldo has five more Ballon d’Or awards than Benzema and the Frenchman trying to boast his achievement has no real standing towards the Portuguese icon.
In any case, it doesn’t look like Ronaldo and Benzema are exactly best friends anymore.
They might be playing in the same country, but Ronaldo clearly doesn’t value his ex-teammate enough to deem him better than Mbappe.
This entire incident could make for an awkward meeting the next time these two ex-Real Madrid stars meet each other in the Saudi Pro League – which will happen on 5 December when Al-Ittihad hosts Al-Nassr in a crucial league clash.
