Benfica legend drags Cristiano Ronaldo into the row: It's a lie | OneFootball

Ángel Di María, who was Cristiano Ronaldo’s teammate at Real Madrid, took the opportunity to clarify the reasons why he chose to leave the Madrid club to join Manchester United in the summer of 2014, for a fee of around 75 million euros, assuring that it had nothing to do with financial reasons.

"I didn’t want to leave. They said I wanted to earn the same as Cristiano, but that’s a lie. How could I expect to earn the same as someone who has won several Ballon d’Ors? I was very happy, I had just won the Champions League, and Ancelotti didn’t want me to leave either, but James (Rodríguez) had arrived, and I was the one on the market who could be sold," he said in an interview with the Spanish newspaper "as".

Even so, the 37-year-old player keeps fond memories of the Santiago Bernabéu, especially of Cristiano Ronaldo, although he places him behind his compatriot Lionel Messi, who received an offer to play in Saudi Arabia: "The thing is, Cris works based on hard work and effort to be number 1, but Messi drinks mate in the locker room right after games, showing that he has a gift from God to be the best."

"In terms of professionalism, Cris is number 1, by far. His way of working, taking care of himself, always trying to be the best, competing with Leo, was very commendable, but he happened to coincide with Messi’s era, and that made his goal much more difficult," he concluded.

Together at Real Madrid, the former Benfica player and CR7 won a Spanish Championship (2011/2012), two Copa del Rey titles (2010/2011 and 2013/2014), a Spanish Super Cup (2012), a Champions League (2013/2014) and a UEFA Super Cup at the start of the 2014/2015 season.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.