He’s tired of the snipes, the sneers and the endless bulls**t being thrown at him over the last few months. 8 Ronaldo sat down for a sensational 90-minute televised interview with Pearce 8 The football superstar spoke amid a tumultuous season with UnitedCredit: Reuters 8 In April, Ronaldo and his partner Georgina suffered the unbearable loss of their son It comes from the media, his bosses, his colleagues and even former teammates. Above all, he is fed up with the lack of mainstream respect he feels is due him after winning 32 trophies, including five Ballon d’Ors, five Champions Leagues, seven championships in four different countries and one Euro with Portugal. Ronaldo, 37, is the best goalscorer in the history of football and for me, and many others who are qualified to judge, such as Zinedine Zidane and Carlo Ancelotti, the best ever to play the game. He’s also the most followed person on Instagram, the modern measurement of star power, and is set to surpass half a billion followers. But right now he’s feeling angry and disrespectful and he’s not going to stay silent any longer. As he prepares to fly to Qatar for his fifth – and almost certainly last – World Cup, he wants to have his say. We sat down for a 90 minute TV interview for my show Piers Morgan Uncensored which is by far the most explosive he has ever done. Ronaldo is finally setting the record straight for what he calls the “toughest period of my life,” both professionally and personally. He says he feels “betrayed” by the way he has been treated by Manchester United, annoyed that he has been made a “black sheep” to blame for everything that has gone wrong at the club and believes he is now being actively ousted. . At work, he had three bosses in just over a year. Firstly, his former team-mate Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who was sacked just weeks after Ronaldo’s return, has nothing but respect. For the other two, Ralf Rangnick and current manager Erik ten Haag, he has little good to say. Of Rangnick, who hasn’t managed a football club for over a decade, he says: “If you’re not even a manager, how are you going to be the boss of Manchester United? I hadn’t even heard of him.” I don’t respect him because he doesn’t show respect for me. Ronaldo to Erik ten Haag Of Ten Haag, who dropped Ronaldo last month for refusing to come on as a last-minute substitute against Tottenham, he says: “I don’t respect him because he doesn’t show respect for me. If you don’t respect me, I will never respect you.” “If you don’t have respect for me, I’ll never have respect for you.” As for some of his most vocal critics, such as another former team-mate Wayne Rooney, who has publicly attacked Ronaldo for months and urged United to get rid of him, he is full of contempt for their title-winning motivations. Watch Piers Morgan Uncensored weekdays on Sky 526, Virgin Media 627, Freeview 237, Freesat 217 or Fox Nation in the US He says: “I don’t know why he criticizes me so badly. . . probably because he finished his career and I’m still playing at a high level.” Then he smiles and adds, “I’m not going to say I’m better looking than him. Which is true. . . “ Back home in April, he and his partner Georgina suffered the excruciating loss of their son during childbirth, a heartbreaking tragedy in which the boy’s twin sister survived. Somehow, he found the strength to keep playing, fueled in part by the amazing support he received from fans of rival clubs such as Liverpool, where the crowd sang You’ll Never Walk Alone in the seventh minute (Ronaldo wears No 7 in jersey of ) of their next home game. 8 Ronaldo told Piers he has no respect for Man Utd manager Erik ten Hag 8 Ronaldo, pictured with his family, feels ‘betrayed’ by the way he was treated by United He admits: “I never expected to see this.” He and Georgina also received a personal condolence note from the royal family, which surprised and touched him in equal measure. He is shocked that he has been less well supported by the club, which he blames for a lack of “empathy”, especially when his three-month-old daughter was hospitalized in July and he was unable to return in time for pre-season training because he wanted to stay with her. Ronaldo says Old Trafford seniors questioned him when he explained why he couldn’t return, which left him feeling “hurt” and “bad”. This is not how the fairy tale should have ended. Just over 14 months ago, Ronaldo sensationally signed for Manchester United in a comeback story that stunned and mesmerized the football world. He was heading to United’s arch-rivals Manchester City when a personal appeal from his great mentor and father figure, Sir Alex Ferguson, took him back to where he started. This is not how the fairy tale should have ended. Piers Morgan “I followed my heart,” he says simply, beating his chest. “He (Sir Alex) said to me, ‘It’s impossible to come to Manchester City’ and I said, ‘OK, boss.’ In his first game back at Old Trafford, the self-proclaimed ‘Theatre of Dreams’, he scored twice in a 4-1 win over Newcastle, cheered on in the stands by Sir Alex and Ronaldo’s ecstatic, weeping mother. Delirious United fans chanted ‘Viva Ronaldo’ for hours after the match. As his teammate Marcus Rashford wrote that night: “Like he never left.” But all too soon, the cold, hard reality hit. This was a very different Manchester United to the team that first left in 2009. Or rather, to his dismay, it was exactly the same, and he hadn’t progressed at all, and is now run by people he considers inferior to those who ran things before. He was shocked at the lack of improvements in the training facilities, from the pool and gym to the kitchen (nutrition and diet) and technology. “Progress was zero,” he sighs. “Since Sir Alex left, I haven’t seen any development at the club. Nothing had changed.” And he was frustrated by the dismissive attitude of many of the younger players, who seemed uninterested in learning the lessons he had learned from his magnificent career. Since Sir Alex left, I haven’t seen any development at the club. Ronaldo at Manchester United More importantly, he was disappointed to find that, after years of failure and stagnation, United could no longer sign the world’s best players, making the chance of winning top trophies that much more difficult. “I think the fans need to know the truth,” he says. “I want the best for the club. That’s why I’m coming to Manchester United. “But you have some things in you that don’t help (us) get to the top level, like City, Liverpool and even now Arsenal. . . a club of this dimension should be at the top of the tree in my opinion and unfortunately they are not.” At the heart of his displeasure is that Ronaldo hates losing and wants to operate in a winning environment – the kind he doesn’t believe exists at United now and may need drastic steps to fix, including his departure. He says: “As Picasso said, you have to destroy it in order to rebuild it (the exact quote of the artist was: “Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.”) and if they start with me, for me, it is not an act. problem. “I love Manchester United, I love the fans, they are always on my side. But if they want to do it differently … they have to change many, many things.” As for what Sir Alex thinks of the current situation, Ronaldo says: “He knows better than anyone that the club is not on the path it deserves. “He knows. Everyone knows. People who don’t see this… it’s because they don’t want to see, they’re blind.” I first interviewed Cristiano three years ago in Turin, Italy, when he was still playing for Juventus, and we ended up having a four-hour dinner together. Since then, we have become very unlikely but very good friends. We text and talk a lot, and he’s always been incredibly honest with me. He is a very intelligent, likeable guy who has thought very carefully about doing this interview. I could feel the frustration and anger building up inside him for many months. Ronaldo takes his football very seriously – and winning even more seriously. You don’t get all the trophies and records he has without having a fiercely strong and resilient mindset, a relentless work ethic, an incredibly fierce competitive spirit and an unwavering belief that you are No.1. For someone like Ronaldo who suddenly finds himself at a club that isn’t competing for top-flight silverware, and where he’s been dropped, benched, snubbed, fought over and even last month, for the first time in his career, suspend. tough. Not only because last season he was the club’s top scorer with 24 goals. He doesn’t expect any special treatment, but he does expect to be treated with the respect he feels he has earned. Ronaldo takes his football very seriously – and winning even more seriously. Piers Morgan When our interview was over, Georgina arrived in an excited hood with their young children, who immediately all ran to their father and clung to his feet. Watching Ronaldo with his children is a joy. he showers them with the same love and affection that his mother always lavished on him. He said: “My family is everything to me. Even more so after what we’ve been through this year.” Earlier, on camera, he made a shocking revelation about his dead son that made me choke up. I can’t imagine living my life in the constant frenzy of goldfish that Ronaldo has to navigate, where everything he does or says is scrutinized so intensely, often harshly, across the planet. Having to do this after suffering the heartbreaking tragedy of losing a child must be incredibly difficult. But he…
