Twelve years after leaving for Real Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo made a highly anticipated return to Manchester United. However, things didn’t go according to plan as he ended up rescinding his contract halfway through the 2022-23 season.
Though he was one of their few bright spots last year, Erik ten Hag decided to drop Ronaldo from the starting lineup after taking over in the summer. That didn’t sit well with the Portuguese, who blasted the coach and the front office in an interview.
Ronaldo ended up signing a lucrative contract with Saudi Arabian side Al-Nassr, but made a number of enemies since that infamous interview that led to his exit. If not, just look at what Eric Cantona had to say about him.
Eric Cantona takes huge shot at Cristiano Ronaldo
"He came back here and United wasn't the United he left and sometimes he doesn't realize things changed,” Cantona said about Ronaldo, via Samuel Luckhurst of The Manchester Evening News. “So maybe he was surprised so many things changed.
"You have two kind of players: the one who wants to play every game because they still think they're 25 years old and the ones who realize they are not 25 years old and they are here to help the young players, they know they will not play every game, they know they will play some games.
"But their part is to help the young players. Like (Zlatan) Ibrahimovic still does it with Milan, Ryan Giggs or (Paolo) Maldini when he was in Milan. But I think Ronaldo didn't realize - and he still doesn't realize - he's not 25 years old. He's just older and he should have realized that instead of being not happy to play some games, say, 'okay, I am not 25 years old, I cannot play every game, but I will help the young players and accept that situation and that's my situation'."
Many believe Ronaldo has to accept he’s aging and thereby adjust to it. Others claim he still has a lot left in the tank and United treated him unfairly. Either way, nothing has prevented Cristiano from landing a massive deal to continue playing the beautiful game.
