Chelsea loanee Joao Felix has admitted to not being surprised by Cristiano Ronaldo leaving Manchester United in the lead-up to last year's World Cup.
Felix, 23, featured alongside Ronaldo in three games at the Qatar World Cup. His parent club, Atletico Madrid, were linked with bringing Ronaldo back to Spain during the summer, while there were even rumours that the pair could be involved in a swap deal before the January window opened.
United were linked with Felix again after Ronaldo had already left the club earlier this year, but Chelsea eventually sealed the deal. Despite suggestions of the players linking up domestically at one club or another, the Atletico forward understands why Ronaldo ended up leaving Europe entirely.
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"No [I'm not surprised by the move], because there was nothing left for him to win in Europe," Felix said during an interview with AS. "He's written his name into the history books, and now he's going to write his name into the history books in Saudi Arabia. I wish him all the best."
One thing Felix was surprised about was seeing Ronaldo being benched by now-former head coach Fernando Santos during the World Cup first knockout round tie against Switzerland. Asked about the group's reaction to that decision, he replied: "We were a bit surprised because it is not normal to see Cristiano on the bench, but it was the coach's decision; he was the one who decided.
"Cristiano reacted very well because we were all connected with the team and there were no bad faces. His reaction was very good for everyone else because he gave us confidence and an idea that we were all together. He was really good to us; and kept helping us with everything."
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