Portuguese professional footballer, Cristiano Ronaldo, has reacted to speculations that he wanted to leave Portugal’s World Cup camp, describing it as “outside noise”.
He insisted that the squad is “too strong to be broken by outside forces.”
The former Man. United striker irked his manager, Fernando Santos after he appeared unhappy in their 2-1 loss to South Korea.
When he was dropped by his coach for their last-16 clash against Switzerland – which they won 6-1, he was said to have threatened to fly home.
But Portugal later hit out at the rumours, saying Ronaldo “builds up a unique track record every day at the service of the national team and the country, which must be respected and which attests to the unquestionable degree of commitment to the national team.”
The 37-year-old has broken his silence since the reports emerged, insisting Portugal was too ‘close’ and ‘brave’ to be affected by outside noise.
In a tweet, the forward wrote: ‘A group too close to be broken by outside forces. A nation too brave to let itself be frightened by any adversary.
“A team in the truest sense of the word, which will fight for the dream until the end! Believe with us! Strength, Portugal!”
See the tweet below
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that Ronaldo has won five Ballon d’Or awards and four European Golden Shoes, the most by a European player. He has won 32 trophies in his career, including seven league titles, five UEFA Champions Leagues, and the UEFA European Championship.
Ronaldo holds the records for most appearances (183), goals (140), and assists (42) in the Champions League, goals in the European Championship (14), international goals (118), and international appearances by a European (195).
He is one of the few players to have made over 1,100 professional career appearances and has scored over 800 official senior career goals for the club and country. He is the only male player to score in five World Cup tournaments.
Ronaldo began his senior career with Sporting CP, before signing with Manchester United in 2003, at age 18, winning the FA Cup in his first season. He would also go on to win three consecutive Premier League titles, the Champions League and the FIFA Club World Cup; at age 23, he won his first Ballon d’Or.
The striker was the subject of the then-most expensive association football transfer when he signed for Real Madrid in 2009 in a transfer worth €94 million (£80 million), where he won 15 trophies, including two La Liga titles, two Copa del Rey, and four Champions Leagues, and became the club’s all-time top goalscorer.
He won back-to-back Ballons d’Or in 2013 and 2014, and again in 2016 and 2017, and was runner-up three times behind Lionel Messi, his perceived career rival. In 2018, he signed for Juventus in a transfer worth an initial €100 million (£88 million), the most expensive transfer for an Italian club and for a player over 30 years old.
He won two Serie A titles, two Supercoppa Italiana trophies and a Coppa Italia, before returning to United in 2021. He left in 2022.
Ronaldo made his international debut for Portugal in 2003 at the age of 18 and has since earned over 190 caps, making him Portugal’s most-capped player. With more than 100 goals at the international level, he is also the nation’s all-time top goalscorer.
He has scored at 11 major tournaments; he scored his first international goal at Euro 2004, where he helped Portugal reach the final. The Portuguese striker assumed the captaincy of the national team in July 2008. In 2015, Ronaldo was named the best Portuguese player of all time by the Portuguese Football Federation.
The following year, he led Portugal to their first major tournament title at Euro 2016, and received the Silver Boot as the second-highest goalscorer of the tournament. He also led them to victory in the inaugural UEFA Nations League in 2019, receiving the top scorer award in the finals, and later received the Golden Boot as top scorer of Euro 2020.
One of the world’s most marketable and famous athletes, Ronaldo was ranked the world’s highest-paid athlete by Forbes in 2016 and 2017 and the world’s most famous athlete by ESPN from 2016 to 2019. He is the first footballer and the third sportsman to earn US$1 billion in his career.
