Every generation gets the interviewer/celebrity face-off they deserve. Frost/Nixon. Cosell/Ali. Bashir/Jackson. You can add Morgan/Ronaldo to that list. From what we’ve seen so far, the tete-a-tete between TalkTV irritant Piers Morgan and Manchester United forward Cristiano Ronaldo is completely in keeping with the times we’re in. It’s simpering. It’s dishonest. Its edges have been smoothed down into bitesize pieces of “content”. It’s a self-centred power move that lauds the individual, arriving at a time when we live more isolated lives than ever.
You’ve seen the quotes by now. Ronaldo doesn’t respect manager Erik ten Hag because he claims the Dutchman doesn’t respect him. United as a club are trying to drive him out. He feels betrayed by United and, bizarrely, Wayne Rooney. Perhaps most incredulously, the man who spent all summer trying to leave asserts that “I want the best for the club.”
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The interview has the look of a piece of carefully-concocted spin. A newspaper man before he became a fawning public cheerleader for the likes of Donald Trump and anyone else who will get him hate-clicks, Morgan knows how to spin a story. There’s a reason Ronaldo was not pressed on his words. Why Morgan instead allowed him to spit bile entirely unchallenged. It’s because Morgan does not measure journalistic success in the stories he unearths, but in the friends he makes. Surrounding himself with important people makes him feel important. Notoriety trumps integrity, if you’ll pardon the pun.
Perhaps the most prescient thing Ronaldo said in his softball exchange with Morgan was the following. “I love Manchester United, I love the fans, they’re always on my side.” We’ll come onto the veracity of the first half of that statement in a moment, but the second half is partially correct. Social media was flooded with well-wishers, many displaying profile pictures depicting the Portuguese legend, believing every word he said. Some to the point of delusion. The replies of “At least Ronaldo didn’t try to go to City” to the Rooney quotes were particularly amusing, given Ronaldo attempted exactly that less than 18 months ago.
Ronaldo ingeniously mobilised a certain sort of United fan. You know the one, if you’ve ever spent more than ten minutes on Football Twitter. Green and gold shield in their display name, Anthony Martial or Ronaldo himself as their avatar. Hate the Glazers but more because they haven’t yet purchased Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham, rather than due to the rack and ruin of a stadium they’ve never visited or because they take grossly-outsized dividends every quarter while the club sits deeply in the red. Ronaldo has collected United’s reactive online fanbase behind him like the Pied Piper.
EXCLUSIVE: Cristiano Ronaldo tells Piers Morgan he feels like he's being forced out of Manchester United in an explosive interview.
90 Minutes with Ronaldo. Wednesday and Thursday at 8pm on TalkTV.
@cristiano | @piersmorgan | @TalkTV | #PMU
Leaving no stone unturned, ‘CR7’ tried to get the traditional, match-going fan on side too. Invoking the name of Sir Alex Ferguson, Ronaldo purred, “He knows better than anybody that the club is not on the path they deserve to be.” This was one of multiple displays of hypocrisy and half-truth in the interview, considering Ferguson always reiterated that no player was bigger than the club. Ask David Beckham, Ruud van Nistelrooy or Jaap Stam how Ferguson would have handled a player who didn’t toe the line.
But “truth” was not what Ronaldo was there to spread, as much as he kept uttering the word. His assertion that he is the victim here, a devoted man being forced out of the club he loves, is demonstrably fabricated. Ronaldo spent his summer openly trying to leave the club and only remains in situ at Old Trafford due to lack of interest from Champions League teams. It is Ten Hag, the manager the Portugal international accuses of disrespect, who has tried to make United hospitable for his wantaway striker.
Ten Hag has spoken since his first press conference of wanting to work with Ronaldo. He has named the player as captain for a recent game against Aston Villa. In truth, he has stuck by Ronaldo more than many managers would have. The fact is, Ronaldo cannot reconcile the fact that his own performances no longer justify him being an automatic starter. He is a shadow of even the player we saw last season. Three goals in 16 appearances tell their own story. You can count Ronaldo’s flashes of brilliance this season on one hand and have fingers left over. Ronaldo now plays for a team picked on form rather than reputation and the real reason he is bristling is because he no longer warrants selection based on his performances.
That explanation will not be enough for his disciples. Those fans pausing from their daily debates with Lionel Messi aficionados to throw bile at anyone who doesn’t agree with their messiah’s words. To genuine fans and even neutrals who have watched United this season, those words ring hollow. A player who tried to leave is now claiming he is being forced out. A once-great footballer is furious that he is not an automatic starter in a team he is no longer good enough to get into.
The real subtext of Ronaldo’s interview with Morgan is simply that he is a man out of time with modern football. An ageing superstar raging against the dying of the light. It’s a last roll of the dice from a player who realises this is one of his last opportunities to command the world’s attention. He’ll get his move, and millions of fairweather fans will follow him to wherever he goes. But one can’t shake the feeling such an outcome would benefit Manchester United far more than it would harm them.
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