7 former Cristiano Ronaldo teammates who’ve fired shots at CR7: Talisca, Benzema…
Cristiano Ronaldo has played with plenty of world-class players throughout his illustrious career, although not all of them are still on good terms with him.
While CR7 undoubtedly ranks among the best players of all time, he does have a tendency to get drawn into disputes with his former teammates.
We’ve gone through Ronaldo’s career and have found seven of his former teammates who’ve fired shots at him over the years.
Talisca
The Brazilian playmaker recently jumped to the defence of Jhon Duran and appeared to fire an indirect shot at Ronaldo in the process.
“He is a great player and will do a lot for this club,” Talisca said on X in response to a post about Duran.
“The problem is that you always want to find someone to blame for the defeats, but you don’t see where the real mistake lies. Stop acting like this all the time
“You know where the mistake is, you’re just afraid to say it, lol.”
While Talisca didn’t name Ronaldo in the post, many fans on social media have speculated that CR7 is the supposed ‘real mistake’ in question.
In a follow-up post, the 31-year-old also said: “On top of that, you want to do to Duran what they did to me, to benefit others.”
Luka Modric
It’s no secret that Ronaldo thinks he should’ve won the Ballon d’Or in 2018 and Modric didn’t take kindly to CR7 not showing up to the award ceremony that year.
“It turns out these choice and trophies only have value when they get them,” Modric said in 2018.
“It is not fair to their playing colleagues, or to the voters who have nominated them for the past 10 years – nor for football or supporters.”
Rafael van der Vaart
The Dutch playmaker only spent one year playing alongside Ronaldo at Real Madrid before he left the club in 2010.
While Van der Vaart has praised CR7 on numerous occasions, he’s also fired the occasional jibe at his former teammate.
“Ronaldo was so unbelievably selfish,” Van der Vaart told talkSPORT.
“If we won 6-0 and he didn’t score, he wasn’t happy. When we lost but he scored twice, it was alright.
“I had so many chats with him, and it was so interesting because he was always like, ‘I need my goals! I need my goals!'”
Karim Benzema
Benzema played 342 games alongside Ronaldo at Real Madrid, but he doesn’t consider the Portuguese star as the best of all time.
“If he thinks he is the best in history, then he is. It depends, for me, for example, the best is Ronaldo from Brazil,” Benzema told TNT Sports.
READ NEXT: Comparing Robert Lewandowski’s stats after turning 30 with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo
TRY A QUIZ: The Ultimate Cristiano Ronaldo Quiz: 30 tricky questions on the Real Madrid & Man Utd icon
Isco
When asked about Ronaldo’s departure from Real Madrid in 2018, Isco fired a shot at his former teammate who he claimed “didn’t want to be here.”
“People have been talking about that all season. We can’t be talking about someone who isn’t here,” Isco told reporters in 2018.
“We can’t be crying over someone who didn’t want to be here.”
When asked for a response, Ronaldo did fire back and said: “It’s all right. You can not cry. I do not have to talk about other clubs.
“Everyone knows the story I had at Real Madrid. It’s not for me to talk about the crisis of others.”
Wayne Rooney
Upon Ronaldo’s return to Manchester United in 2021, Rooney fired a few shots at his former teammate.
After CR7 refused to come on as a substitute against Tottenham, Rooney stated that the Portuguese star was in danger of becoming an “unwanted distraction” at the club.
Rooney then doubled down on his comments a few months later and said: “I just think the things he has done from the start of the season; it is not acceptable for Manchester United.
“I’ve seen Roy Keane defending him. Roy wouldn’t accept that. Roy wouldn’t accept that at all. It is a distraction which Manchester United don’t need at the minute, when they are trying to rebuild.”
When asked about Rooney’s criticism, Ronaldo told Piers Morgan: “I don’t know why he criticises me so badly…probably because he finished his career and I’m still playing at a high level.”
READ: The 10 players who’ve provided the most assists for Cristiano Ronaldo
Gary Neville
While Neville often speaks highly of Ronaldo, he did stick the boot in towards the end of CR7’s second stint with Manchester United.
“I criticised him because my opinion is that, when you are a leader in the dressing room and you are a leader in world football, there are different ways of teaching, different ways of mentoring and different ways of coaching the younger players on the team who are not at your level,” Neville told Sky Sports.
“I think Cristiano should have modified and adapted his leadership style at United to the players in the locker room who needed mentoring, training and levelling up.
“Cristiano got frustrated with them, he got angry with them and that was visible sometimes during the games.
“I wish it hadn’t ended like that, I wish he had stayed, and they had found a way to cope with each other until the end of the season.
“But it became impossible once he did the interview with Piers Morgan. It was so public at the time that there was only one outcome.”