Ronaldo Blames Perez as Reason He Left Real Madrid
Former World Footballer of the Year, Cristiano Ronaldo, has blamed Real Madrid President Florentino Perez, as the main reason for his exit from the club last summer.
The Spanish club has been struggling since the exit of the top scorer and against the back drop of the humiliating 1-5 defeat by FC Barcelona last weekend has not help the club to steer away from poor runs this season.
Ronaldo, whom many club supporters felt left the team for monetary reasons and pride said that his former club boss was only interested in business aspect and not the feelings of the players.
Perez brought Ronaldo to Madrid in 2009 and he spent nine hugely successful years at the Santiago Bernabeu, becoming Real’s all-time top goal-scorer and winning the Champions League four times.
However, Ronaldo revealed in an interview with France Football that he felt Perez only ever valued him for his profitability, saying: “He only ever looked at me as a business relationship. I know it. What he told me never came from the heart.”
Real Madrid claimed that Ronaldo’s € 99m transfer to Juventus in July was instigated ‘at the will and the request of the player’, but Ronaldo insisted Perez’s attitude played a part too.
“I felt it inside the club, especially from the president, that they no longer considered me the same way that they did in the start,” he said. “In the first four or five years there, I had the feeling of being ‘Cristiano Ronaldo’. Less afterwards.
“The president looked at me through eyes that didn’t want to say the same thing, as if I was no longer indispensable to them, if you know what I mean. That’s what made me think about leaving.
“If it had all been about money, I’d have moved to China, where I would have earned five times as much than here (at Juventus) or at Real. I did not come to Juve for the money. I earned the same in Madrid, if not more. The difference is that, at Juve, they really wanted me. They told me that and made it clear. They showed me that.”
Ronaldo has settled in well, scoring seven goals in his first ten Serie A appearances.
