Real Madrid boss CArlo Ancelotti has jumped to the defense of his former player Cristiano Ronaldo amid the striker’s recent problems with both club and country.
The 37-year-old has been in the news a lot lately for all the wrong reasons and his actions recently saw him essentially sacked by his last club, Manchester United.
This has now carried over to the Portugal squad, as Ronaldo was ruled out of his team’s round of 16 clash against Switzerland, which they dominated 6-1 and his replacement, Goncalo Ramos, scored a hat-trick.
The negative stories around that were Ronaldo’s reaction to Portugal’s first goal, not celebrating with his teammates after the game and not training with the substitutes during yesterday’s session.
Despite all this, his former coach at Real Madrid, Carlo Ancelotti, has jumped to his defense.
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Carlo Ancelotti defends the recent behavior of Cristiano Ronaldo
“Ronaldo probably still feels in his 20s because he’s fine, he has the answers he’s looking for in his body,” Ancelotti told Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport via the Evening Standard.
“The competition has become tough.
“I have trained him (Ronaldo) for two years and there were no problems. In fact, it solved it for me. Cristiano trains well, pays attention to details and everything was easy for me to handle. He is an exceptional player”.
The Real Madrid coach seems to suggest that Ronaldo’s brain knows exactly what it has to do, but the body doesn’t keep up despite how fit it is. His coaches see that and this is the source of the 37-year-old’s frustration as it prevents him from playing at the level he once was.
