Cristiano Ronaldo may be the reigning king of football fame, but even his most devoted fans might be shocked at a joke he made the expenses of Real Madrid teammates while at a promotion of event for Audi. In the video, Cristiano is seen seated alongside Manchester United loanee Javier Hernandez and second-string players Jese Rodriguez and Nacho.
Ronaldo looks mischievously off-camera and says, “ Vaya equipo de m****a que me pones ” which roughly translates to “Look at this s**t team you’ve put me on!” The Mirror described the reaction of his teammates as quite awkward.
“Nice. Of course, he might have been joking. Either way, the reactions of the three players are priceless. They don’t get angry. They don’t give him some ‘friendly’ stick in return. Nope, it’s just nervous grins all round.”
It’s hard to say whether or not Cristiano meant what he said, even just a little bit; but it’s not like it would be outside of the range of what someone often lauded “the greatest footballer in the world” might at least think from time to time. Even though there have been rumors that Ronaldo might return to Manchester , he did already leave United once in 2009 for a record setting $131 million-dollar contract with Real Madrid, according to Bio.com .
Despite the global brand that Cristiano has amassed over the last few years, he does have one small problem when it comes to winning key awards: Argentine player Lionel Messi. Though it’s hard to say which one comes out on top as the “greatest football player in the world,” at least one group will have to make a choice between the two when it awards the Ballon D’Or award this year — an award which was won by Ronaldo in 2013.
Looking at it statistically, Repucom’s global head of research Mike Wragg says that Cristiano does hold a slight advantage over Lionel. The sports research company Repucom found that 92 percent of people know who Ronaldo is, while 87 percent have heard of Messi, Wragg told CNN .
“Cristiano Ronaldo dominates in terms of his overall marketability — largely because of the consistently high levels of awareness people have of him around the world, whilst Messi has a greater proportion of people that do know of him saying they like him.”
Do you think Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi will win the Ballon D’Or? What did you think of Cristiano’s comments to his Real Madrid teammates?
[Image via Amagico ]