#3 The time he felt ‘sad’ at Real Madrid
Ronaldo has been at Real Madrid since 2009 now and while there has been the odd rumour about him heading back to Man United, the idea of him leaving the Bernabeu seems crazy. He recently signed a new deal, in fact, that should keep him there until 2021.
Back in 2012 though, a weird spat with the club saw the Portuguese refuse to celebrate goals, claim that he was feeling “sad”, and stated that he was “upset with people inside the club”. This came after a 3-0 win over Granada that saw Ronaldo score twice. So why did this happen?
At the time, Ronaldo claimed that it wasn’t about money, but the incident came shortly after a list of the highest paid players in the world was published, showing Ronaldo in 10th place behind the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Samuel Eto’o and Didier Drogba. In particular – so the rumour went – Ronaldo was furious that he was only earning the same money at Real as Kaka.
In the end, though, the issue was settled – about a year later Ronaldo inked a new contract making him the highest paid player in the world at the time. Worth the money? Probably, but the questionable way of forcing Real’s hand was definitely a cowardly move.
