Florentino Pérez has said that his club are not contemplating Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure but one day they will have to, and his equivocal tone suggests they are keeping their options open this summer“That’s not something I am contemplating.” The phrase was repeated often but that did not make it any more true. On Monday night Real Madrid’s president, Florentino Pérez, insisted he was not even thinking about a series of scenarios that he certainly is thinking about. He has to. As he said himself: “Things happen and you look for the best solution for everyone.” What happened was that the Portuguese daily A Bola broke the story that Cristiano Ronaldo wants to leave Spain; the question now is whether that...
The podders discuss the rumours surrounding Ronaldo’s future in Spain. Plus, VAR controversy at the Confederations Cup; Sunderland’s search for a manager continues; and a bumper weekend for Craig DavidAC Jimbo is joined by Barry Glendenning, Simon Burnton and Sasha Goryunov for this second post-season special edition of Football Weekly.We begin with the Confederations Cup, which has churned out a couple of surprisingly entertaining games but also a fair bit of controversy with all this VAR business. Continue reading...
Real Madrid’s coach does not say much but when he does people listen, and his second Champions League win underlined how attuned he is to his playersOn his 20th Champions League night, Zinédine Zidane left with his second European Cup – as many as Pep Guardiola, José Mourinho or Sir Alex Ferguson. It was way after midnight by the time Sergio Ramos carried it out of Cardiff and Zidane had already departed, slipping away quietly, pausing only to embrace the Juventus manager, Massimiliano Allegri, as he went. As the Real Madrid players paraded the trophy around the pitch Zidane had stood aside with his wife, watching them, a fond look on his face. “The key is that they get on...
Zinedine Zidane came up with a plan in August to protect his star man for the vital games and Ronaldo delivered with two goals in the Champions League finalJust when you thought it might be all about the man it’s never about, it was about the man it’s always about. In the buildup to this final, Casemiro had insisted that he’s there to “plug holes”, claiming that it is robbing the ball, not scoring goals, that brings him pleasure, and yet he had just reached a higher plane, thumping in the shot that put Real Madrid back into the lead and looked set to bring the night in Cardiff to a close. Three minutes later, though, another man stepped centre-stage....
Madrid are on the verge of a third Champions League title in four years, yet Ronaldo’s smothering persona is obscuring an exceptional eventCristiano Ronaldo has been grandly ever-present before Saturday’s Champions League final, lurking behind every object in your eyeline like the sky, or God. Away from football the Ronaldo newswire has been ticking and whirring away through the night. Ronaldo reveals his summer style secrets. Ronaldo’s girlfriend may or may not be pregnant. Ronaldo has been declared the most famous athlete on Earth – by an algorithm.As Real Madrid and Juventus complete their preparations for an intriguing final in Cardiff a large part of the analysis has, as ever, been bound up in trying to explain Ronaldo. Rarely can...