“Even Cristiano could not” – Cristiano Ronaldo’s ex-personal trainer claims his former Real Madrid teammate trained with better intensity

Cristiano Ronaldo’s former personal trainer Javier Atalaya has claimed that his former Real Madrid teammate Karim Benzema trained with better intensity than the Portugal international.

Javier Atalaya, who currently works as a personal trainer for Karim Benzema, used to work closely with Cristiano Ronaldo during his time at the Spanish capital club.

Cristiano Ronaldo is widely hailed as one of the most hard-working footballers on the training ground.

However, Javier Atalaya has claimed that Karim Benzema trains with even more intensity than his former Real Madrid teammate.

Karim Benzema limped out of Real Madrid's 2-0 win against Valencia at the Bernabeu last Thursday, which cast doubt over his participation in the upcoming Champions League Round of 16 tie.

Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti has however claimed that the injury is not a serious one and hopes to have him back soon.

However, the Ballon d'Or 2022 winner missed Los Blancos' away trip to Mallorca which ended in a 1-0 defeat for the Spanish and European champions.

Now, Benzema's personal trainer Javier Atalaya has opened up on Benzema's recovery and insisted that he is improving each day.

"Karim is getting better every day. He is at home, without having anything to do, and he goes down to the gym to train. The Frenchman's mentality involves improving every day."

Highlighting Benzema's training levels, Atalaya has also compared his training regime to that of Cristiano Ronaldo. He added:

"Even Cristiano could not stand the training that Benzema does."

Both Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema made their moves to Real Madrid back in the summer of 2009.

Ronaldo left the club in 2018 and is now on the books of Al-Nassr, having played for Juventus and Manchester United in between.

Benzema, meanwhile, remains a key player for the Spanish capital club and helped them win both La Liga and the Champions League last season.

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When Magnus Carlsen revealed how Real Madrid forced him to pick Cristiano Ronaldo as favorite player

Chess master Magnus Carlsen made a stunning claim that Real Madrid forced him to say Cristiano Ronaldo was his favorite player despite his personal choice being Lionel Messi.

Carlsen, a five-time world champion, is a Messi fan but was asked to name Cristiano Ronaldo instead, during an interview with Los Blancos once. Speaking on Russian YouTuber Lex Fridman's channel, he said (via Hindustan Times):

"I think it’s pretty hard to make a case for anybody else than (Lionel) Messi for his all-round game. My Real Madrid fandom sort of predates the Ronaldo era – the second Ronaldo, not the first one (Ronaldo Nazario). I always liked Ronaldo, but I always kind of thought that Messi was better."

He continued:

"I went to quite a number of Madrid games, and they’ve always been super helpful to me down there. The only thing is that they were going to do an interview, and they were going to ask me who my favourite player was. I said somebody else. I think it was Isco at that point, and they were like, ‘Okay, take two, now you say Ronaldo.'So for them it was very important, but it wasn’t that huge to me."