Okay, this was definitely the tamer of the two parts. The first part of the Cristiano Ronaldo interview with Pier Morgan aired tonight…but it wasn’t as ‘explosive’ as one might have expected it would be.
Maybe it’s because Piers Morgan already released the interesting, shocking clips that Ronaldo said in this part of the interview three days ago, but this was a bit of a letdown.
The way Morgan was going on and on about ‘how this was the most scandalous interview Ronaldo has ever given’, ‘how the football world will be shocked’, ‘how the truth will finally be revealed’, etc. in his promotion of the interview was completely blown out of proportion…which is to be expected by a former Daily Mirror editor-in-chief.
Now, I’m not saying he’s a bad person as I just don’t know enough about him to make that judgement, but I am saying that I know enough about the Daily Mirror and the similar British Press papers like it to know their game.
Simply put, they’ll blow anything out of proportion to get a few more clicks and views.
Regardless, most of what was covered in this interview was already released a few days ago, such as Ronaldo’s feelings about Ralf Rangnick, his comments about Rooney and Neville, his complaints about the younger generation of footballers, and the tragedy that befell his family with the death of his newborn son back in April.
In my opinion, the best part of this part of the interview was when Ronaldo talked about his newborn son and how his sad passing affected Ronaldo and the rest of his family.
The emotion and personal ‘mini-stories’ he told, such as Ronaldo admitting to keeping his son and father’s ashes in a homemade chapel and speaking to then regularly, not only evoked empathy and sympathy to the real struggle the Manchester United superstar has endured this season, but also showed Ronaldo in an entirely new light: as a human being.
Due to the greatness of his football deeds, achievements, and accolades, many in the media and ordinary people forget that Cristiano Ronaldo is just like them as he experiences the same loss, tragedy, sadness, heartbreak, hurt, joy, happiness, fear, etc. as they do.
At the very least, this interview showed that Ronaldo is a human too.
Anyway, the stuff about how ‘he didn’t know who Rangnick was’ when the Austrian was brought in as an interim and that he’s a better-looking guy than Wayne Rooney was definitely funny and lighthearted but lacked the ‘shocking’ punch that was promised. Those are just personal grievances that Ronaldo has with Rooney and Rangnick, not groundbreaking secrets about the struggles during his time at United.
Sure, it was great to hear him speak about how surprised he was with old and decrepit the training ground, equipment, personnel, etc. when he returned last September, but we already knew that. It’s not like it’s a secret that Manchester United has fallen into disrepair in the nine years since Sir Alex Ferguson and David Gill (the former chief executive of Manchester United) retired.
Wasn’t Cristiano paying even the slightest bit of attention to his former club in the twelve years that he left? Maybe not as he was rather busy winning Champions Leagues, Ballon d’Ors, league titles, and becoming the greatest ever goal scorer.
Though, it was interesting to hear that Ronaldo really did almost join Manchester City prior to United entering the race to sign him two offseasons ago. I would have been a little more annoyed with that revelation if he didn’t immediately qualify it by saying that Man United only came into the equation in the final 72 hours of the saga, which then convinced him to rejoin the Red Devils.
Regardless, we’re going to get into the Erik ten Hag, Glazer family, and how Ronaldo feels about his United teammates convos in the second half of the interview tomorrow, so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if anything that’s actually ‘shocking’ comes out.
Otherwise, the only thing we will have learned from this entire interview is that Ronaldo sees himself as a strawberry.
(PS: Piers Morgan sure does love Ronaldo, doesn’t he? Now, I thought I was bad with my biases in favor of the great CR7, but Piers Morgan is on a whole other level than me. I don’t think he even challenged a single word Ronaldo said.)
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