Cristiano Ronaldo actually came to Piers Morgan with the idea of a bombshell, tell-all interview.
Manchester United are still reeling from the short trailer that was uploaded to Twitter on Sunday evening previewing the full interview set to air on Wednesday on Piers Morgan Uncensored. In the teaser clip alone, Ronaldo does not hold back on boss Erik ten Hag, ex-teammate Wayne Rooney and the way the Red Devils are being run.
Few journalists would turn down the chance to host such a captivating interview with one of the most famous faces in all of football, but it comes as a surprise to learn it was actually Ronaldo who first pitched the idea, according to Morgan.
Speaking to talkSPORT, the former Good Morning Britain presenter said: "Well, Cristiano asked me to do it – simple as that. I didn't ask him, he asked me.
"It was all very recent. He's been thinking about this for a while. I think it's no secret that he's felt a build-up of deep frustration about what's been happening at United over the last year. He felt it was time to speak out.
"He knows it was going to be incendiary, he knows this is going to rattle some cages, but he also feels that he should be doing this. He knows people will criticise him, but he also knows that what he’s saying is true."
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Many have questioned the timing of the interview as it comes just as the Premier League pauses for the World Cup and attentions at club level turn to the upcoming January transfer window.
It has been suggested Ronaldo's tactic has been to make his position at United untenable and force through an exit at the turn of the year, with The Telegraph reporting how Ten Hag has been forced to hold crisis talks over the forward's immediate future in response to the interview.
The same report claims that the explosive sit-down discussion with Morgan has only decreased Ronaldo's popularity in the dressing room further with many players not expected to be particularly upset when the Portugal skipper eventually does leave.
Morgan has a different stance on why Ronaldo may have conducted the interview when he did and made the bold claim that it is to do with his love for United.
"As he makes the point in the interview repeatedly – he loves Manchester United, he loves the fans," Morgan explains. "But what he's come back to, in his view, is a stagnated club which hasn’t moved on at all from where he left it.
"He can't understand why not. He feels if he doesn’t speak out, nothing will change."
