Cristiano Ronaldo has responded to Jose Mourinho’s jibe this week that he coached the ‘real’ Ronaldo earlier in his career – the Brazilian.
The Real Madrid star gave his first Press conference of the new season on Los Blancos’ tour to the United States, and made it clear he is a little disappointed with his former boss.
“There are some things in life that don’t deserve comment and I’m not going to do that for obvious reasons.
“I’ve always respected all my coaches and tried to learn from them. I’m used to people talking badly of me.
“In my country we say you don’t spit on the plate you eat from. Do you understand that? That’s it. I just want to talk about positive things,” maintained the Portuguese.
Madrid will now face Mourinho’s Chelsea in the final of the International Champions Cup in Miami, and Ronaldo insists he is focusing solely on matters on the pitch and not on the bench.
“We’ll be up against Chelsea, not a Coach. It’s one more game in our preparations that we want to win. We will continue our work to begin La Liga in the best way possible.”
The former Manchester United man also spoke about the first few weeks under new boss Carlo Ancelotti.
“The truth is that we are very happy with the Coach. Training is very good and we are working to start the season as best we can. Carlo is a very warm-hearted man and we are all excited,” said Ronaldo, who was asked about the renewal of his contract at the Bernabeu.
“That situation has still not been resolved, so I don’t want to speak about it as this is not the right time. Later maybe we’ll know something more concrete, but at the moment I’m just concentrating on playing and my preparations.”
Real Madrid President Florentino Perez recently declared that he thought Ronaldo would retire with the club, although the player himself did not go that far.
“I do my work and I’m not going to confirm anything. I don’t know about my future. Right now I’m a Real Madrid player and as for the future I really don’t know.
“We’ll see what happens, but for the moment I’m happy where I am.”
Under Ancelotti, Ronaldo is playing further forward and away from the wings, yet he insists he is up for the challenge.
“The Coach varies the positions and I think now is the time to try a new one. For me it’s good and I feel comfortable. Carlo gave me the option to play where I wanted and I feel good about that. It makes no difference because all I want to do is play.”
Finally, Ronaldo said he was looking forward to the new campaign, although he did not want to predict how many goals he might score next year.
“I see very positive things and we’ve made some good signings. Spanish players who know La Liga have come in and they have already shown they are good players.
“As for goals, I don’t know how many I’ll get, hopefully more than last year. As I’ve said before, I like big challenges and I’ll try, but to set a target wouldn’t be fair.
“The statistics speak for themselves. I like to learn and I’ll try to keep on improving.”
