Cristiano Ronaldo’s latest swipe of Manchester United has been viewed as offering a major hint over what the Portuguese superstar intends to do when he hangs up his boots
Cristiano Ronaldo has been tipped to buy his own football club following his recent dig at his old club Manchester United. The Portuguese megastar has voiced his disappointment over the club’s leadership and their inability to restore the Red Devils to their former glory.
In a frank chat with Piers Morgan, the five-time Ballon d’Or winner warned that head coach Ruben Amorim can’t single-handedly turn things around. Amorim, a former teammate of Ronaldo in the Portugal national team, acknowledged “mistakes” have been made but emphasised the need to concentrate on United’s future rather than dwelling on the past.
Speculation has now emerged that Ronaldo’s remarks indicate he might be more inclined to buy a football club rather than pursue a managerial career after retiring. The 40-year-old, currently plying his trade for Saudi Pro League side Al Nassr, is not exactly strapped for cash, having recently been declared football’s first billionaire player by Bloomberg.
Ex-Liverpool strikers Dean Saunders reckons owning a football club would appeal more to Ronaldo as it would offer him greater control than managing a team. Saunders, who has managed Wolves and Wrexham in the past, shared his views on talkSPORT, suggesting Ronaldo grew frustrated with his teammates’ attitudes during his second stint at United.
“I think he’ll buy a club because you’ve then got a bit of control over what happens at the club when you’re in charge of it,” Saunders said. “But when you’re coaching players, you rely on players to make you look good. He relies on himself right now.
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“I don’t think he’s having a go at Amorim. I know for a fact that he told ex-players that he couldn’t believe the attitude of the players he was playing with at Man United.”
Saunders added: “If you’d done that in front of Sir Alex Ferguson, you’d never play again. I think he’s on about the culture at the club and Amorim is trying to say as well that he needs to get the culture right.”
Ronaldo has a contract with Al Nassr that runs until summer 2027. He’s also expected feature in next year’s World Cup as he nears the remarkable milestone of scoring 1,000 career goals.
At the Globe Soccer Awards in December 2024, Ronaldo ruled out a future in coaching. Instead, he hinted at potentially becoming a club owner, but only “when the right opportunity comes.”
Ronaldo further elaborated on his ambitions, saying: “Mark my words, I will be the owner of a big club, for sure.” He also indicated that he would want to actively improve how a club is run, suggesting that if he ever owned a team like United, he would “make things clear and adjust what I think is bad there.”
In a candid chat with Morgan, Ronaldo said of Amorim’s tenure at Old Trafford: “He’s doing his best. What are you going to do? Miracles? Miracles is impossible. We say in Portugal, ‘miracles is only in Fatima’, and he’s not going to do miracles.”
The phrase “miracle of Fatima” harks back to the events of October 13, 1917, when it’s said that a crowd witnessed the “Miracle of the Sun”. The tale goes that during this event, the sun seemed to spin, change colours, and plummet towards the earth before returning to its usual position.
When quizzed about Ronaldo’s remarks, Amorim said: “Of course, he knows and he has a huge impact in everything he says. What we need to focus on is the future. We know that we as a club made a lot of mistakes in the past and we are trying to change that. Let’s not focus on what happened.
“Let’s focus on what we are doing now and we are doing that. We are changing a lot of things in the structure, the way we do things and want the players to behave. We are doing that and we are improving, so let’s continue and forget the past.”
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