July 12, 2008 Archives

The press has been going nuts over the last couple of days regarding comments attributed to Cristiano Ronaldo likening himeself to s slave. This is not what he said.

What actually happened is that in an earlier interview Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA, had previously stated that Ronaldo should be allowed to leave United and likened modern football contracts to slavery.

Ronaldo, hobbling on crutches along a pavement in Portugal, was asked if he agreed with Sepp Blatter's comments that he should be allowed to leave Manchester United and go wherever he wishes. His reply was "Yes, I totally agree with Mr Blatter's comments." There was no mention of Blatter's comments about slavery in the interview that took place.

The British media picked up on Ronaldo's reply, took it out of context, and implied that he felt he was a slave at Manchester United. Another case of the British media distorting the facts to suit their own ends and sell more papers.

As a Manchester United fan I'm annoyed in the extreme at Real Madrid's conduct over the last month or so in publicly courting a player under contract at another club. Roman Calderon, Real's president, can deny trying to cause unrest, but the coverage Marca, a Spanish paper, have had over the matter and the fact that every Real player has been instructed to big up Ronaldo whenever interviewed, suggests more than what Madrid are saying. FIFA's investigation of the matter and subsequent decision that Real have done nothing wrong makes a mockery of the tapping-up situation. It would appear that FIFA are saying "If you want to sign a player but don't want to approach his club, just let the papers know and they'll do the job for you."

Ronaldo is being vilified at the moment but the truth of the matter is that he has always expressed a desire to play for Real Madrid one day. All during his time at United he has said this. United fans may have hoped in the past that the day would be long in the future, if at all, but the reality is starting to appear that it could be very soon.

Carlos Quieroz leaving United to take over as Portuguese national manager doesn't help United in their cause but one can only hope that Ronaldo listens to Sir Alex and realises that the best place for him to develop further as a player is currently still in Manchester.

I'm hoping Ronaldo stays for at least one more year, and would hope that he stays until Fergie retires at least. But, I'm a realist, and if he insists on leaving now then United should agree to let him go and try and get a stupid amount of money out of Madrid. Madrid have previously said that they would pay upto €100million before backtracking and saying they would go as high as €70million. If I were the United hierarchy I would reiterate that Ronaldo is not for sale and even if he were then €100million would be a good, although unsuccessful, initial first bid.