Cristiano Ronaldo has said that Manchester United\u2019s owners, the Glazer family, \u201cdon\u2019t care\u201d about how successful the Premier League giants are on the pitch.
\nThe five-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner has been a peripheral figure this season under new manager Erik ten Hag and was disciplined for refusing to come on as a substitute.
\nBut the Portugal superstar had returned to the side in recent weeks and even captained the Red Devils in a 3-1 loss at Aston Villa.
\nHowever, the 37-year-old was absent from the squad in Sunday\u2019s 2-1 victory over Fulham in United\u2019s final match before a six-week break for the World Cup.
\nIn an explosive interview with TalkTV on Sunday Ronaldo, who made his name at Old Trafford, said he felt \u201cbetrayed\u201d by United and that he believed senior club figures were trying to oust him.
\nIn another part of the interview released on Monday he continued to wage war on the club where he made his name during his first stint at Old Trafford from 2003 to 2009.
\nThe forward, who returned to the club last year, said he does not speak to the Glazers, the Americans who have owned United since 2005, and they do not have the club\u2019s best interests at heart.
\n\u201cThe Glazers, they don\u2019t care about the club\u2026 professional sport. As you know, Manchester is a marketing club,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cThey will get money from the marketing \u2014 the sport, it\u2019s, they don\u2019t really care, in my opinion.
\n\u201cThe fans, they\u2019re always right. I think the fans should know the truth, should know that the players want the best for the club. I want the best for the club. This is why I came to Manchester United.\u201d
\nRonaldo won three Premier League titles and the Champions League during his first stint at United but the club have not won any silverware since 2017.
\nRooney clash
\nRonaldo said there were \u201csome things inside the club\u201d that were preventing United from competing with rivals Manchester City and Liverpool and it would be hard for them to return to the top in the next few years.
\nHe has also rounded on former teammates Wayne Rooney and Gary Neville after criticism from the pair.
\n\u201cPeople can have (their) own opinion but they don\u2019t really know what\u2019s going on. For example, inside the training ground and Carrington or even my life,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cThey have to listen to my point of view as well. Because it\u2019s easy to criticise but if you don\u2019t know the whole story, it\u2019s easy.
\n\u201cThey are not my friends.\u201d
\nRonaldo explained in his interview why he did not go on United\u2019s pre-season tour to Australia in July.
\nHe revealed partner Georgina Rodriguez and baby daughter Bella Esmeralda were hospitalised with a \u201cbig problem\u201d, only a matter of months after the death of their newborn son, but said he was not fully believed by the United hierarchy.
\n\u201cI am never, ever going to change the health of my family for a football,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cNever. Now or 10 years behind or forward and it is something that really hurt me because they doubt my words.\u201d
\nA statement from United, released on Monday, said the club would \u201cconsider its response after the full facts have been established\u201d.
\nThe World Cup starts on Sunday, although Euro 2016 winners Portugal, who are in Group H, do not begin their campaign until November 24.
\nIn a message posted on social media, along with a photo of himself and some of his international team-mates, Ronaldo said: \u201cTotal and absolute focus on the work of the national team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cristiano Ronaldo has said that Manchester United\u2019s owners, the Glazer family, \u201cdon\u2019t care\u201d about how successful the Premier League giants are on the pitch. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2828,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}