It is a common maxim that money cannot buy you happiness and Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the world’s best paid players, appears to have become the latest to acknowledge this after saying he was “sad” at Real Madrid.
The Portugal forward, who cost Real a record 94 million euros (US$118.49 million) in 2009 and who earns about 11 million euros a year, refused to elaborate after Sunday’s La Liga win, but added that it was for professional, not personal reasons.
“The people who work here know why,” he said after their routine 3-0 home win over Granada, in which he scored a brace, and his comments dominated the sports headlines in Spain on Monday.
Photo: AFP
“Enough in enough” ran the front page of sports daily Marca over a photo of a serious looking Ronaldo.
“CR7 unsettles Madrid and activates the alarm bells after failing to celebrate his goals against Granada,” it said.
An El Mundo comment piece was headlined “Rich, good-looking and sad.”
Amid rife speculation, Ronaldo’s agent and close friend Jorge Mendes said on Monday it was up to the player to decide if he wanted to go public or not with the reasons behind his sadness.
“I am aware of the reasons behind Ronaldo’s words and it is up to him to disclose them or not,” Mendes wrote in a statement on his company’s Web site, Gestifute.
“I am not surprise by them and they cause me no discomfort. Those who know my relationship with Ronaldo know he will always count on my total solidarity,” he added.
Radio station Cadena Ser and other media reported that Ronaldo had held a meeting with Real president Florentino Perez on Saturday where he said he did not feel he had the support of the dressing room, he was unhappy and wanted to leave.
Ronaldo himself dismissed the idea that his feelings had anything to do with losing out to Andres Iniesta for the Best Player in Europe award on Thursday last week.
There was media speculation that he was unhappy not to be offered an improved contract after his goal-scoring feats over the last three seasons.
“Cristiano has the right to be annoyed about whatever he seems fit,” a columnist in sports daily AS wrote.
“But it shows a lack of respect to his colleagues and the fans to be angry for reasons that one is not brave enough to make clear. If he wants more money, come out and say so,” he said.
Ronaldo, who netted 46 league goals last season, has had a relatively quiet start to the campaign and looked below par in Real’s league-opening draw against Valencia and in their shock 2-1 defeat at Getafe.
The 27-year-old scored the winner against Barcelona in their Spanish Super Cup second-leg win on Wednesday last week, but was pointedly serious and downbeat after scoring his goals against Granada on Sunday.
Ronaldo, who asked to be substituted with a knock to his left thigh in the second half, joins up with the Portugal squad on Monday next week for their World Cup 2014 qualifiers against Luxembourg and Azerbaijan.
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
“I don’t remember the moment, but ever since I was a kid, that’s the first thing I loved,” two-time NBA All-Star Isaiah Thomas said of his lifelong romance with basketball. However, that journey unfolded against the limitations of his size in a game where height often dictates opportunity — a reality he confronted throughout his career. At 175cm, Thomas is less than 2cm taller than the average Taiwanese adult male, while NBA players during his career stood at about 200cm on average. Compared with the NBA’s average career length of less than five years, Thomas’ 13-season career stands out as
Dakar and Rabat have longstanding ties, but relations have been strained since the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final, which Senegal won in mid-January before being stripped of the title, which was transferred to Morocco. Now, the AFCON trophy is something of a thorn in the two countries’ sides. On Rue Mohamed V, the street where Moroccan vendors are based in the Senegalese capital, a police van is parked. “The police have been on high alert since the Confederation of African Football [CAF] decided to award the title to Morocco, but there have been no incidents,” a local resident said.
RSS