Cristiano Ronaldo has blasted Real Madrid club president Florentino Perez and has seemingly blamed him for his exit from the club this past summer.
The 33-year-old spent a trophy-laden nine years at the Bernabeu, but opted to end his stint in Spain by securing a move to Juventus.
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While life has started well for the Portuguese superstar in Turin, he was quizzed on his departure from Real Madrid once again this week, and ultimately it sounds as though he blames Perez’s handling of the situation as a major reason behind why he chose to seek out a new challenge elsewhere.
“I felt that inside the club, especially on the part of the president, they did not consider me as at the beginning,” he is quoted as saying by Mundo Deportivo. “The first four or five years had the feeling of being Cristiano Ronaldo. Then less. The president looked at me with eyes that did not want to say the same thing, as if I was no longer indispensable.
“When there was information that said I wanted to leave, I had the impression that the president would not stop me.”
It sounds as though there is perhaps a little bit of guess work on Ronaldo’s part involved here, as given his crucial presence in the Madrid line-up and his influence throughout his time at the club, it would make little sense for the club to sell him unless he wanted to leave.
Particularly given how things have started this season without him, it arguably shows just how much his absence is hurting the Spanish giants, and Perez would surely have been more than aware of that risk.
Nevertheless, Ronaldo seemingly feels as though more could have been done to make him feel wanted and secure at Real Madrid and Perez will perhaps be regretting not doing more ahead of his departure to ensure that he wasn’t thinking about leaving.