Rio Ferdinand has confirmed that Thierry Henry belittled the legend of Cristiano Ronaldo during his time playing for Manchester United.
Thierry Henry has been accused by Rio Ferdinand of diminishing the stature of Cristiano Ronaldo at Manchester United. Ferdinand alleges that Henry harbored resentment towards Ronaldo simply because he did not praise the Al-Nassr star as enthusiastically as other pundits. Ferdinand, who played alongside Ronaldo for six years at Man United, suggests that Ronaldo’s exceptional progress and dominance over Henry were evident during his tenure at MU.
Ferdinand believes that the aforementioned resentment stems from a fierce clash between the two clubs in 2005 when Manchester United emerged victorious with a 4-2 win at Highbury, during which Ronaldo and Henry appeared to clash.
He also states that Ronaldo, who has played for Brazil, Real Madrid, and Barcelona in his legendary career, had disagreements with Cristiano, as the latter’s emergence caused the World Cup champion to be labeled “Fat Ronaldo.”
Ferdinand told Andreas Poke on a podcast about Ronaldo: “You know, the reason behind the name. It’s like you’ve taken my name, so I have an issue with you.”
He added, “The same thing happened with Thierry Henry. Thierry is the same. The way I see Thierry talk about Cristiano, he doesn’t speak about Ronaldo with any passion or enthusiasm. It seems like he’s belittling Cristiano a lot.”
“There’s a clip at Highbury where Henry elbows Ronaldo from behind, and Cristiano pushes him away. Then, Cristiano scores the decisive goal.”
Ronaldo continues to score goals for Al-Nassr and Portugal and is likely to feature in Portugal’s upcoming friendly match against Slovenia on Wednesday. Ronaldo missed Selecao’s previous match, but will return as Roberto Martinez’s side intensifies preparations for Euro 2024.