“I wasn’t friends with Cristiano Ronaldo when I played at the club” - Gary Neville on relationship with Ronaldo after incident at Manchester United
Manchester United legend Gary Neville has claimed that he wasn't friends with Cristiano Ronaldo during their time at the club. The Portuguese joined the Red Devils in 2003 and spent six years at Old Trafford, before returning for his second stint in 2021.
Neville famously criticized Cristiano Ronaldo in 2022 during his stand-off with Erik ten Hag. The 39-year-old responded by snubbing the Englishman during pre-match buildup ahead of the West Ham United game.
Shedding light on the matter on The Overlap, Neville insisted that he expected the Portuguese ace to be a leader during his second stint at Old Trafford.
"To be fair, I never spoke to him before that for eight or nine years. I wasn’t friends with Cristiano when I played at the club. He was a great teammate, a special player," said Neville.
“I believe he helped Manchester United enormously back in the day and I believe Manchester United was very good for him as well, so were the senior players around him in terms of the principles and that’s where I was disappointed with him at the end at United," he continued.
Neville concluded:
“There were a group of young players at United at that time, the likes of Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood and a couple more young players who were struggling with pressure and the exposure of Man United and he was a guy who could carry this on his shoulders in abundance."
Manchester United terminated Cristiano Ronaldo's contract in December 2022 following his infamous interview with Piers Morgan.
How did Cristiano Ronaldo fare in his second stint with Manchester United?
Cristiano Ronaldo initially left Manchester United in 2009 to join Real Madrid. After nine seasons at the Santiago Bernabeu and three more with Juventus, the Portuguese superstar completed a high-profile return to Old Trafford in the summer of 2021.
By then, the five-time Ballon d'Or winner had won everything in club football. Ronaldo was expected to propel a young Red Devils team back to the heydays.
Unfortunately, things quickly went downhill. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer lost his job later that year, while Ralf Rangnick was roped in temporarily to steady the ship.
Ronaldo ended the 2021-22 campaign with 24 goals and three assists from 39 games across competitions. The 39-year-old, however, only managed three goals and two assists from 16 games under Erik ten Hag. He went on to join Al-Nassr at the end of 2022.
