One of the players involved has now given his version of the incident.
A former opponent of Cristiano Ronaldo has recalled a heated argument between himself and the “arrogant” five-time Ballon d’Or winner. – The Portuguese superstar now earns €200 million a year in Saudi Arabia and is the world’s highest-paid footballer ever.
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Ronaldo has played for Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus and now Al-Nassr throughout an illustrious career. He won four of his five Ballon d’Or titles while at Real Madrid between 2009 and 2018, as well as two La Liga titles and four Champions League trophies.
Although Ronaldo is the all-time leading scorer in football history with 938 goals, he has occasionally been known to provoke opponents on the pitch.
The incident in 2011
One such incident occurred in January 2011, when Ronaldo was involved in a confrontation in the players’ tunnel with Walter Pandiani during a La Liga match between Real Madrid and Osasuna.
Pandiani, who previously played in the Premier League for Birmingham City, reportedly became furious after Ronaldo mocked his salary.
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He told Spanish radio: “In my country, he might have had to make an appointment with a dentist after such an incident.”
Pandiani sticks to his criticism
Pandiani has not forgotten the case. Already in 2014, he claimed that Ronaldo only won the Ballon d’Or that year because he “cried so much”.
Now, over 14 years later, the 49-year-old – who retired in 2016 – has once again addressed the verbal altercation with the Portuguese icon and explained exactly what happened.
In a new interview with Diario AS, Pandiani said:
“The spectators at El Sadar are very aggressive and they barked and insulted him from the moment he came out to warm up. It annoyed him, and while he was practicing free kicks, he shot at the spectators.”
“After a foul against Madrid, Cristiano pushed my teammate [Javier] Camuñas and I went to defend him. I pushed [Ronaldo] and he asked me who I was and how much I earned.”
“The quarrel continued in the tunnel between him and Sergio Ramos. I was very angry, and so were they.”
“I didn’t like his attitude at all. He was an arrogant guy. As a goalscorer, he was huge, but his behaviour was far from good enough.”
