Manchester United has officially announced that they have terminated Cristiano Ronaldo’s contract by “mutual consent.” This is shocking, to say the least, despite rumors that the hierarchy was discussing the possibility of terminating his contract with the club’s lawyers for breaching contract protocols. 

The controversy regarding the termination is amplified by the fact that the news broke just days after the release of Ronaldo’s interview conducted with Piers Morgan, where he condemned United’s system, manager, facilities, and hierarchy, as well as many other things.

Some controversial quotes regarding the club’s system and facilities included:

“…when I signed for Manchester United, I thought everything was changed because it’s 13 years… I was in Real Madrid nine years and three in Juventus. And when I arrived, I thought everything will be different, you know, the technology, the infrastructures and everything. But I was surprised, in a bad way, let’s say in that way because I saw everything was the same.

“And Manchester it wasn’t, in that moment that as you mentioned that Ole was sacked, Michael Carrick he assumed the job for two games. Villareal, and Chelsea away. And everything was so fast, but surprised me a lot, [the] instability in the club.”

“No, they stopped on a clock, in my opinion, which is something that surprised me.”

Going on to say:

“I don’t know what’s going on but since Sir Alex Ferguson left I saw no evolution in the club, the progress was zero.”

Regarding the discord between him and Ten Hag:

 “Don’t tell me that the top players, the guys who want everything, the key players will play three minutes…For me it was not respect, this is why I take this decision I regret. I apologised to my teammates for the situation, I did a post, an Instagram, I regret to left from the stadium. I regret my teammates know what I felt, and I said to them apologised, but in the same way, I’m not regret to take the decisions to not come on… The coach didn’t have respect for me. So this is why the relationship, it’s in that way. He keep saying in the press that he come to me, he like me blah, blah, blah but that it’s only for the press. 100%.”

“If you don’t have respect for me, I’m never going to have respect for you.”

To summarize, Ronaldo criticizes the club for making stagnant progress after the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson.  He blames this on the Glazers, who have been very unpopular among the fanbase.

“The Glazers, they don’t care about the club. I mean, professional sport, as you know this, Manchester is a marketing club. They will get its money from the marketing – the sport, it’s, they don’t really care, in my opinion.”

Publicly slamming the owners: I personally feel like this, of all other things, was what ultimately got him kicked out of the club. 

It seems like the main issue here is the lack of “Respect” both sides feel they receive from each other. Ronaldo feels like the club and Erik Ten Hag don’t give him the respect he deserves, while the club feels like Ronaldo (by leaving before the match ends, creating drama around the club) is disrespecting the club’s rules. In the end, both sides seem quick to demand but unwilling to give that respect which has driven this relationship to an irreparable state.

Ronaldo believes that the club tried to use him as a “black sheep” to cover up all the club’s problems during the summer and even tried to make him leave. If this is true, this totally flips the narrative upside down as the media were reporting that it was the player who was trying to force an exit out of the club. 

The situation definitely does not look good for both parties, as there clearly seems to be something unsettled. 

It will be interesting to see which club will be chosen as Cristiano’s next destination will be as the former Real Madrid, Manchester United, and Juventus star looks to the last years of his career.