Gary Neville has revealed the latest on his friendship with Cristiano Ronaldo after the Sky Sports pundit was snubbed by his former teammate.
Gary Neville Reveals Latest On Cristiano Ronaldo Friendship
During Manchester United’s Premier League encounter against West Ham in October 2022, Ronaldo appeared to blank Gary Neville – despite the two playing for the club together.
The Portuguese icon embraced his former teammate Louis Saha and Jamie Redknapp before ignoring Neville and this appeared to be because of Neville’s comments over Ronaldo walking down the tunnel before United’s match against Tottenham.
Neville then followed up on this a week later after Ronaldo was left out of United’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea as the former England right back claimed Ronaldo should leave the club.
Neville said back in 2022: “For me, Erik ten Hag had no choice, no option. Cristiano’s left the ground twice, you can’t do that.
“On the eve of pre-season, he asked for a transfer, he’s building up a list of things. It’s a messy end and Ten Hag is trying to establish control.
“End it this week or create a truce to get to the World Cup, it’s not doing him any favours. Leaving the dressing room before full-time, that’s not what he does, if you’re doing things like that you’ve got to leave.”
Since then, Ronaldo has been on a tear in Saudi Arabia and has not been seen with his former teammate, despite filming with Rio Ferdinand – a former teammate of Ronaldo’s.
The Portuguese star was on fine form during the recent international break, scoring an overhead kick in a 5-1 win over Poland and this has brought his name back in conversation with Neville.
The Sky Sports pundit spoke on their relationship The Overlap US, which he co-hosts with Jamie Carragher – another player that was snubbed by Ronaldo.
Neville said: “He’s never not been my friend. “To be fair, the situation at United at the end, he went and did that interview with Piers Morgan, I didn’t feel that was the right way to end it, personally.
“I feel as though he’s a guy who has achieved basically everything in the game and more.
“He’s at 910 goals, which is absolutely scandalous. And he’s going to finish with 1000, there is no way that that guy, with the way in which he believes and thinks, is going to finish without 1000. He will continue until he gets there.
“The way in which he gets there and keeps going is unbelievable. His determination and his willing to keep going and keep being professional every single year is fantastic.”
Carragher continued to joke with the former Manchester United right back, asking how the 2022 snub impacted their friendship.
Neville said: “To be fair, I never spoke to him before that for eight or nine years. I wasn’t friends with Cristiano when I played at the club. He was a great teammate, a special player.
“I believe he helped Manchester United enormously back in the day and I believe Manchester United was very good for him as well, so were the senior players around him in terms of the principles and that’s where I was disappointed with him at the end at United.”
