Gary Neville has described his former Manchester United teammate Cristiano Ronaldo’s tearful World Cup exit as “horrible”.
Ronaldo left the pitch in tears on Saturday after Portugal crashed out of the tournament at the hands of Morocco. The superstar forward became the first player to score in five different World Cups but will be aged 41 for the next edition of the tournament and is unlikely to still be involved for his nation.
Ronaldo ended his relationship with Manchester United by mutual consent last month, following his bombshell interview with Piers Morgan. He is a free agent and is hopeful of joining a new club in the January – with Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr strongly linked with a move.
Despite opening the scoring in his nation’s first World Cup group-stage game against Ghana from the penalty spot, Ronaldo’s tournament did not go to plan. He failed to score against Uruguay and South Korea before being dropped for Goncalo Ramos for the knockout matches against Switzerland and Morocco.
The striker was introduced as a second-half substitute in both matches but failed to make any meaningful impact on proceedings in either, culminating in his walking off the pitch alone at the final whistle after his side’s quarter-final exit on Saturday.
Ronaldo’s former United teammate Neville explained on his Sky Sports podcast, while rounding up the World Cup action: “I do want to mention Cristiano Ronaldo because I saw that image of him crying in the tunnel. That was a horrible image for me.
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“That’s that moment where he knows his dream of winning the World Cup for his country has gone. We’ve all been there at the end of our careers, but he’s one of the greatest, if not the greatest player of all time. It was horrible to see him like that. He’s had a tough couple of months.”
For his part, Ronaldo wrote on Instagram after the game: "Winning a World Cup for Portugal was the biggest and most ambitious dream of my career. Fortunately I won many titles of international dimension, including Portugal, but putting our country's name on the highest foot in the World was my biggest dream.
"I fought for it. I fought hard for this dream. In the 5 appearances I scored in World Cups over 16 years, always by the side of great players and supported by millions of Portuguese, I gave my all. Leave it all out on the field. I never turned my face to the fight and I never gave up on that dream.
"Sadly yesterday the dream ended. It's not worth reacting to heat. I just want you all to know that much has been said, much has been written, much has been speculated, but my dedication to Portugal has not changed not for a moment. I was always one fighting for the objective of all and I would never turn my back on my colleagues and my country.
"Not much more to say for now. Thank you Portugal. Thank you Qatar The dream was nice while it lasted... Now, it's hoping that the weather will be good advisor and allow each one to draw their own conclusions."
Meanwhile, Portugal boss Fernando Santos has doubled down on his stance on Ronaldo and defended the decision to leave him out of the starting line-up. He said: "I don't regret it, the team did very well in the game with Switzerland. Cristiano is a huge player and he came in when we understood that it was necessary in the game. I have no such regrets."
