Cristiano Ronaldo, who twice played for Manchester United, and a former teammate of his at the “Red Devils” have quashed controversial comments about the 39-year-old Portuguese superstar.
Former Manchester United goalkeeper Tim Howard has dismissed former Red Devils captain Gary Neville’s shocking comments that Cristiano Ronaldo “doesn’t work hard enough”. The Portuguese striker is an iconic player at Old Trafford after twice playing for the “Red Devils”, despite his second return to Manchester United in failure.
MU just received a shocking defeat and was eliminated against the League Two team
(PLO) – Manchester United is the most successful club in FA Youth Cup history, but was eliminated from this year’s tournament in the fourth round by League Two team Swindon Town.
In total, Cristiano Ronaldo has made 346 appearances for MU and scored 145 goals. However, there are still accusations that Ronaldo did not try and work hard enough on the field. Speaking in October 2021, legendary former MU defender Gary Neville said: “It brings great positives but also brings problems. We can say Cristiano Ronaldo needs to be managed .
In the Champions League semi-final against Barcelona in 2008 away from home, Cristiano Ronaldo was pushed forward, and Wayne Rooney and Ji-Sung Park were pushed to the wings. You can’t carry Ronaldo in big matches because he often doesn’t work hard enough on the field.
Now that Ronaldo plays highest in attack, your team will never pressure the opponent from the front. So the idea that Manchester United could become a pressurizing team with Cristiano Ronaldo at centre-forward was never going to happen. Ronaldo did not press opponents 10-15 years ago.”
However, former MU and US goalkeeper Tim Howard believes that is not the case and praised Ronaldo’s attitude. Tim Howard used to play with Ronaldo at MU. He jokingly commented that Ronaldo works hard on “all fronts”, from on the field to product advertising campaigns.
Speaking to the Daily Mail (UK), Tim Howard said: “You see ads for perfume and underwear, McLarens and Ferraris, houses and yachts. Cristiano Ronaldo is that person. You’ve never seen someone work as hard as Ronaldo.”
In the past, Cristiano Ronaldo shared about his working ability. Ronaldo stated that he would not have been able to achieve the success he expected without working hard.
Speaking to France Football magazine in 2019, Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo said: “The right factors to become a great football player are first of all talent. Without that, there’s not much you can do. So talent will be useless without hard work. Nothing falls from the sky. I would never have reached my current position without working hard.”
Since leaving Old Trafford for the second time, Cristiano Ronaldo has rediscovered his scoring ability in Saudi Arabia’s Super Pro League. Playing for Al Nassr Club, Ronaldo scored 38 goals in just 44 appearances in all competitions.
Cristiano Ronaldo has just a year and a half left on his contract with Al Nassr after signing a deal that will see him earn a salary of around £173m a year. Al Nassr is currently taking a break from competition. After returning to play, Al Nassr will face Chinese Super League team Shanghai Shenhua later this month.
