Legendary Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed one of the major reasons Cristiano Ronaldo left the club for Real Madrid in 2009.
The Portuguese forward joined Los Blancos in a mega-deal 11 years ago and went ahead to help them achieve greatness during his nine-year reign at the club.
Ferguson said the 35-year-old started planning his exit strategy after getting former teammate Wayne Rooney sent off in their quarterfinal clash at the FIFA World Cup in Germany in 2006.
The England international claimed he saw Ronaldo wink at his side's bench after getting the referee''s decision go his way 14 years ago.
According to Sport Bible quoting France Football, the former Red Devils boss said: "It actually all started during the 2006 World Cup when Rooney was sent off against Portugal and the press and critics accused Cristiano of having contributed to that. It was unfair.
"But I have to say that on that occasion, Rooney was fantastic and managed the situation very well.
"He came to me and asked if he and Cristiano should do an interview together to silence all the critics before the start of the season.
"I told him that the idea did not seem wise. I thought that it was some sort of gimmick, and I do not like gimmicks.
"Through Jorge Mendes, we were informed that Cristiano was unhappy. He told Jorge that he would not come back to United and that he wanted to go to Real Madrid.
"At the time [Ramon] Calderon was running for Real Madrid's presidency and used Cristiano as a reason to vote for him, which was unseemly of him.
"I took the plane to Lisbon to meet Cristiano in Carlos Queiroz's house. I told him, 'You are not leaving this year. I do not want to sell you to Calderon. But if you play well, you will leave later.' Jorge Mendes was amazing. He did not want Cristiano to leave. He felt that he was not ready.
"He put his financial interests aside as well as those of the player - all that money he could have won - for Cristiano's career, including that amazing 2008-2009 season.
"He knew that I would not go back on my promise. His concentration and work ethic were marvellous. In 2009, Florentino Perez became president of Real, which made it easier for us to work with him concerning his transfer."
Years later Ronaldo would also confirm that the two brushed the incident under the carpet after a chat when they returned to Manchester.
Comments