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BSP-24
FBL-ITA-SERIEA-JUVENTUS-ESP-LIGA-REALMADRID-RONALDO
‘I was no longer indispensable’ at Real Madrid, says Ronaldo
PARIS, Oct 29, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Cristiano Ronaldo has said he decided to
leave Real Madrid for Juventus after sensing that the Spanish club’s
president, Florentino Perez, no longer saw him as being “indispensable”.
“I felt within the club, especially from the president, that I was no
longer considered in the same way as I was at the beginning,” Ronaldo said in
an interview with France Football magazine.
“For the first four or five years, I felt like Cristiano Ronaldo. Less so
after.
“The president looked at me in a way that suggested I was no longer
indispensable, if you know what I mean. That is what made me think about
leaving.”
The 33-year-old Portuguese superstar joined Juventus in a 100 million-euro
($115 million) deal in July, ending a glorious nine-year association with
Real.
His last act with the Spanish club was to participate in them winning the
Champions League for a third consecutive season by beating Liverpool in the
final in May.
But Zinedine Zidane departed as coach in the wake of that game, something
which Ronaldo admits confirmed to him that it might be time to move on.
“My decision to leave was not based on him going. That said, it was one of
the little details that confirmed to me what I had been thinking about the
situation at the club,” Ronaldo said.
He added that he would “deserve” to win the Ballon d’Or this year, and in
doing so would pass Lionel Messi by taking the award for a sixth time. The
winner of the prize, awarded by France Football, will be announced in early
December.
But while Ronaldo continues to enjoy great success on the field, scoring
twice for Juventus at the weekend, he remains embroiled in off-pitch problems
after being accused of rape in the United States.
A former American model Kathryn Mayorga, 34, of Las Vegas, accused Ronaldo
in a 32-page complaint filed last month with a district court in Nevada, of
raping her in June 2009, just before he joined Madrid from Manchester United.
“Of course this matter interferes with my life. I have a partner, four
children, an ageing mother, sisters, a brother, a family with whom I am very
close,” he told the magazine.
“That is without talking about my reputation, that of an exemplary person.
“Imagine what that is like to have someone say you are a rapist, or that
you have this or that.
“I know who I am and what I did. The truth will come out. And the people
who criticise me and who expose my life today, who make a song and dance
about it, these people will see.”
BSS/AFP/ARS/1947 hrs