Watch: Cristiano Ronaldo funnily pranks Rio Ferdinand on pundit duty

Rio Ferdinand has finally got a bit of payback for all that merking he used to do – weirdly, it was dished out by Cristiano Ronaldo live on BT Sport before Manchester United’s game against Southampton.

For those you, like us, who delighted in terrible television in the mid-noughties, Rio Ferdinand will forever be associated with ‘merking’.

For those unfamiliar with the concept, Ferdinand would play a series of pretty extravagant pranks on his Manchester United team-mates, who would usually react pretty angrily – which was obviously the entertaining bit – before Ferdinand waltzed in with a silly grin on his face and said: “Sorry son, you got merked.”

Yes, it was terrible – it was basically a loosely football-themed rip-off of Punk’d, which was already pretty crap. But of course, we lapped it up anyway.

Anyway, we digress. Back to the action at St Mary’s Stadium as Manchester United warmed up to take on Southampton on Saturday lunch-time.

BT’s presenter and gaggle of pundits for some reason found themselves standing in the centre-circle before kick-off. We’ve no idea what’s wrong with the studio, but there you go.

Ferdinand looked pretty uncomfortable with the whole affair as it was. He was definitely wishing he hadn’t chosen that specific day to wear his white trousers and beige suede loafer combo.

Then Ronaldo stuck the boot it. Not literally, but he saw the opportunity to cause a bit of mischief, getting Ferdinand back for being a knobhead 15 years ago.

READ MORE: An ode to ‘merking’ told through Rio Ferdinand’s World Cup Wind-Ups

Ronaldo skipped up behind him looking like a naughty schoolboy, water bottle in hand. He then squirted the contents of said bottle over Ferdinand’s footwear.

Ferdinand turned around and looked indignantly at his former team-mate.

“I’ve got suede shoes on and he’s squirting water on my shoes, man,” Ferdinand uttered into his microphone, sounding like a schoolchild telling on his classmate.

At that point, we half expected Ferdinand to burst into song.

You can burn his house, steal his car, drink his liquor from his old fruit jar. Do anything that you want to do, but uh-huh honey lay off o’ them shoes.

Ronaldo doesn't care about @rioferdy5's suede shoes 🤣 pic.twitter.com/j6kf9zKMfo

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) August 27, 2022

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