Since leaving Manchester United at the end of 2022, Cristiano Ronaldo has had a real one-track mind.
Cristiano Ronaldo has been purely focused on making his career at Al-Nassr a success, and to be fair to him, he is doing a very good job of it.
Ronaldo, now 39, has an impressive goal record, with 42 goals in 49 games for his club. Adding in his international goals for Portugal, nobody in the world scored more calendar goals in 2023 than he did.
Since leaving, Ronaldo has not had anything to say about Manchester United. But he is more forthcoming with Real Madrid.
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Cristiano Ronaldo pays tribute to Real Madrid
While Cristiano Ronaldo will go down in history as a Manchester United legend, his career has been so good that he has an even bigger legendary status at Real Madrid.
Ronaldo played more games and scored more goals for Real Madrid, where he is the team’s all-time scorer.
This included one legendary season where he struck an incredible 61 goals in 54 games, and he won four Champions League trophies there, in addition to his one at Manchester United in 2008.
Ronaldo send out a message today referencing the team’s anniversary, writing on Instagram: “Congratulations for these 122 years of history, Madridista family! Hala Madrid !”
The Portuguese star is yet to send any kind of goodwilled message like this to Manchester United since his exit, and it may be a while.
Last season when the Red Devils won the Carabao Cup, Ronaldo did not congratulate the team on social media. The wounds from his exit will still have been raw.
He left Real on better terms, heading to Juventus before signing with Manchester United in 2021.
Manchester United’s players still think highly of Ronaldo, with Antony, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bruno Fernandes all ‘liking’ his post.
Ronaldo return discussed by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to Manchester United in 2021 was framed as a dream return to take the team to the next level.
His comeback match against Newcastle offered hope this would be the case. But a 2-1 defeat to Young Boys days later, was a brutal reality check.
Ronaldo’s return did not work out, with then manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer saying he had no regrets, but accepted United would have been better off without him.
By time Erik ten Hag was hired in 2022, Ronaldo had already made up his mind he wanted to leave, and he forced his exit late in the year, with it plainly obvious he was very unhappy.
Jose Mourinho recently offered his thoughts on why it did not work out for Ronaldo the second time around. Ronaldo may be long gone, but he remains a talking point.
Maybe soon, Ronaldo will have some positive words to say about United too.
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