World class striker, Cristiano Ronaldo’s refusal to celebrate Gareth Bale’s opening goal at the Galactico’s game with Levante last sunday has sparked outrage amongst fans and football pundits.
Barcelona legend, Hristo Stoichkov has weighed in on the matter. He opined that not only is the Portugues obsessed with his achievements, he is also under a lot of pressure to overtake his Barcelona nemesis, Lionel Messi who is currently topping scoring charts. He however suggested that the talisman be sold if the club is in short of money.
He told Sportium, “You can never get angry because a team-mate has scored and not celebrating is to commit suicide as a team-mate because then you are worth nothing and you are worth nothing to your team.”
“You can’t doubt the quality of either Ronaldo or Messi. Messi is where he should be and Cristiano is going through a difficult time but all players go through rough patches. I was whistled as well in my time. It’s up to the coach to make decisions and to speak to the player.
“Maybe the obsession with Messi is affecting him but I’m not inside his head. Messi motivates his team-mates and, if Ronaldo doesn’t score, it affects his team. At times like that you have to display your personality; 99 per cent of players can’t answer the question ‘why am I being booed?’
“Messi is at the level of Pele, Diego Maradona and Johan Cruyff and what annoys Cristiano is that he is only compared to Messi. You’d have to ask Florentino Perez about Ronaldo’s future. Sooner or later, Cristiano will be sold by his president. The world of football is like that but it depends on his president. I don’t know if they are short of money. If they are, it’s a good moment to sell him.” He concluded.