Juventus midfielder Arthur Melo has described how meticulous former teammate Cristiano Ronaldo was with himself and his teammates when it came to looking after the body.
The 37-year-old’s relentless fitness mentality is well known with the superstar always precise about what he is consuming in his diet. The Portugal captain is said to eat a lot of fish, avoid red meat and evade anything that’s frozen.
This mindset is carried into his work, and he even pulls up teammates when he thinks their palette is sub-standard to what he deems is acceptable, according to Arthur. Ronaldo’s influence at United has seen first team players ditch desserts with colleagues eager to mimic his eating habits.
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Arthur said he had a similar impact during his time at Juventus in Italy. Speaking to TNT Sport (via Daily Mail ), he said: “We used to sit together at the table and sometimes he would look at our plates and say ‘This is not what you should be eating’.
"Ronaldo's not a football player, he is an athlete of choice. He surprised me with his professionalism, with everything he does on the pitch and also off it.” Arthur revealed that Ronaldo was keen to always catch some Italian sun each day as part of his routine.
He added: “He is very careful with his food and always makes a point of getting 15 minutes of sun. Furthermore, he is always attentive to the people around him.” United goalkeeper Lee Grant previously revealed how one unnamed player was particularly attentive to what Ronaldo was eating when he first arrived.
He said: "I'll tell you now not one player touched the apple crumble and custard. Not one player went up for that brownie because everyone was sat down on our table for pre-match and straight away one of the players said to me, 'what's Cristiano got on his plate?'.
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“Obviously it's the most clean, healthy plate you can imagine and it just cracked me up how not one single player dared get up and take that junk food on which was laid out."
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