Cristiano Ronaldo won't be punished by Manchester United after smashing Everton fan's phone: Reports
Manchester United will not punish Cristiano Ronaldo for allegedly slapping a mobile phone out of a fan's hand, according to the Sun.
Following United's dreadful 1-0 defeat at Everton on Saturday, footage emerged online of the 37-year-old walking angrily down the tunnel at Goodison Park. Eye-witnesses claim Ronaldo hit a teenage fan's hand, which sent the phone to the ground.
Despite Manchester United launching an investigation into the incident, The Sun reports that the club have accepted the Portuguese forward's apology and he will face no further punishment.
Cristiano Ronaldo is sorry for smashing a fan's phone 📞 https://t.co/MExKE2esCi
The incident went viral following the Red Devils' defeat to the relegation-threatened Toffees. Ronaldo posted an apology online to the fan later on the same day, offering him free tickets to a Manchester United home game.
The Merseyside police confirmed they are also investigating the incident and in a statement said:
“We can confirm that they’re carrying out an investigating following an incident at the #EVEMAN match at Goodison involving a player as they were walking off the pitch and will be speaking to all parties involved.”
As reported by The Mail, the Everton fan in question is 14-year-old Jacob Harding, whose mother Sarah Kelly claimed was at his first Toffees match. Miss Kelly alleged that the Ronaldo incident had left her son with bruising and wary of attending another football match. She said:
"We were right by the tunnel where they came walking past, my son was there videoing them all. And then he lowered his phone because Ronaldo had pulled down his sock and his leg was bleeding."
She added:
"You can see by the bruise that he's made contact. I was crying, I was shook up, Jacob was in complete shock, he's autistic and he's got dyspraxia as well, so he didn't really digest what was happening until we got home. He's really upset and it's completely put him off going to the game again."
Cristiano Ronaldo's leg at full-time 🤕 https://t.co/zrN9QXBSEg
Ronaldo incident compounds dreadful weekend for Manchester United
Following the tame defeat at Goodison Park, Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea described his team's performance as 'disgraceful' as his side suffered a third defeat in five games.
The Red Devils are seventh in the Premier League, six points behind Tottenham in fourth, with both sides having just seven games left to play. Interim boss Ralf Ragnick has won just eight of his 17 league games in charge, and De Gea told BBC Sport, per The Sun:
"It is a disgrace from us, we should be winning this game. We don’t score but we don’t create proper chances to score. We are not good enough, that is for sure. It will be difficult to be in the top four. They played Wednesday and they were tired but they had more desire than us, that is not acceptable. It's very sad to lose today."
Cristiano Ronaldo is getting paid £775,000 a week at Manchester United and has put up more hissy fits like smashing a kid’s phone or kick Curtis Jones than anything.
He’s been a massive disappointment. United should be cutting ties this summer — his arrival has made them worse.