Former Manchester United star Nani has revealed that Cristiano Ronaldo would openly admit to pondering leaving Old Trafford towards the end of his time with the club.
The Portugal international was a huge success in his time with Man Utd, but arguably hit the best form of his career after making the move to Real Madrid in the summer of 2009.
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It perhaps seemed inevitable that the Red Devils might struggle to hold on to Ronaldo, and Nani has more or less confirmed that his fellow countryman, currently with Juventus, was planning his departure quite openly for some time before he actually left.
“We would stay at the end of training to do competitions and they [Anderson & Ronaldo] were my team mates, everyone has best friends or some they feel more comfortable with and they were my support,” Nani told the UTD Podcast, as quoted by the Metro.
“Some days he [Ronaldo] was telling us openly ‘I’m here six or seven years now, I think it’s enough for me’ he said that a couple of times.
“But it was always ‘I will see, I will see, I will see’ but we never thought it [Real Madrid move] would happen so fast. After we won the league in the second year he left, he produced a great season so we were still surprised.”
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United fans perhaps won’t take too kindly to hearing that Ronaldo was thinking about a transfer for so long when he should have been focused on being a success for Sir Alex Ferguson’s side.
In fairness to him, though, it’s clear the saga didn’t distract him too much as he continued to perform at a very high level for MUFC right until he left.