“If they were all at my level, maybe we would be leaders” - When Cristiano Ronaldo hit out at Real Madrid teammates after defeat to Atletico
Cristiano Ronaldo was not happy after Real Madrid lost to Atletico Madrid in 2016 and hit out at his teammates. He claimed that the players were not at his level of fitness, and that would have helped them get the win.
Speaking to the media after the match, Ronaldo hit out at Lucas Vazquez, Jese Rodriguez and Mateo Kovacic. He pointed out that they were good players but hinted that they were not good enough to play for Real Madrid. He said via The National News:
"If we were all at my level, maybe we would be leaders. I don’t want to disrespect anyone, but when the best players aren’t available it’s harder to win. I like to play with Karim, with Bale, with Marcelo. I’m not saying the others like Lucas [Vazquez], Jese and [Mateo] Kovacic are not good players - they are very good players - but it’s not the same. For all you guys it seems I [Cristiano Ronaldo] am s***, but I don’t listen to what the press say. The statistics and numbers don’t lie.”
Real Madrid lost 1-0 to Atletico Madrid and eventually lost the league title. They finished second with 90 points, while Barcelona won it by a point.
Zinedine Zidane did not back Cristiano Ronaldo's claims about Real Madrid players
Zinedine Zidane admitted that Real Madrid were not good enough against Atletico Madrid. However, he claimed that the main issue was their lack of time to prepare and not the fitness of players, as suggested by Cristiano Ronaldo.
He said via The National News:
“We were not as ready for the game as we thought we were. We needed to run more, against a rival who had played just three days earlier. In a game like this, you have to do more, run more, put our foot in more, do more. If you don’t do this against the second-best team in the league, this is what happens. All I can say is that it’s not just about our fitness.
“The players are not unfit, it’s a question of everything. We didn’t play the game we had prepared. They played on Wednesday and had less time to recover, and look at the game they played. So it is a mental question. We lacked a bit of everything. I told the players that we have to keep on going, I can’t be happy with this performance and neither are they, but we can’t give up. I have a clear idea of what went wrong today,” he added.
Real Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo parted ways in 2018 after the forward decided to join Juventus.