A former colleague of Cristiano Ronaldo ’s new manager has described him as the “worst person” he has ever known in his footballing career in a hard-hitting character assassination.
Ex-Brazilian international Juninho Pernambucano has slammed Al-Nassr boss Rudi Garcia following Ronaldo's arrival in Saudi Arabia. The former midfielder was sporting director at Lyon while Garcia was manager, with the duo known to have a poor relationship.
And now Juninho has launched an extraordinary attack on the man who will now take charge of Ronaldo. The 47-year-old has been scathing in his criticism of Garcia, in the same week Ronaldo arrived in Saudi Arabia.
“He doesn’t know how to lead anything. He leads out of the fear he imposes on others. My experience with Rudi Garcia was terrible. He’s the worst character I’ve known in all my footballing career,” Juninho told MaisFutebol.
“He won’t dare to do anything obstructive. On the contrary he will even serve Cristiano his breakfast if necessary. He will try to be his friend and will do everything possible for that. It will be his dream to be Cristiano Ronaldo ’s friend.
“Rudi Garcia doesn’t care about the team’s success or dressing room harmony. What matters to him is that he’s the centre of attention, whatever the crisis.
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“But like all cold human beings, he recognises those that are better than him and tries to take advantage of it. Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the greatest in the history of football, a legend, and Rudi knows that.”
Garcia has already moved to play down suggestions that Ronaldo is difficult to manage, despite his acrimonious exit from United. Instead, the Frenchman insisted it was an "honour" to welcome him to Saudi Arabia.
“It’s an honour for me but also for Al-Nassr to welcome Cristiano. He is an example, everyone knows that. My objective for Cristiano is make him happy and I want him to enjoy playing with Al-Nassr and winning with Al-Nassr,” Garcia said.
“In my life, the great players like Cristiano are simple to manage because there is nothing I can teach Cristiano. Like he said, we are here to win. We will have time to speak, but the most important thing is that he is here. We need to train and we need to win.”
Ronaldo, who is thought to be earning in the region of £173millon at Al-Nassr, has hit out at criticism of his decision to leave Europe for Saudi Arabia. The likes of Jamie Carragher have slammed the 37-year-old, but he has insisted that this move was the right one to make.
“I’m so proud to make this big decision in my life. In Europe my work is done. I won everything and played for the most important clubs in Europe. This is a new challenge,” Ronaldo said.
“I’m a unique player. I beat all the records there. I want to beat a few records here. This contract is unique but I’m a unique player, so for me it’s normal. I really don’t worry about what people say.
"I am really, really happy to be here. I know the league is very competitive, I saw many games … I’m ready to keep playing football. I had many opportunities in Europe, Brazil, Australia, America, Portugal, many clubs tried to sign me."
Mirror Football has approached Al-Nassr for comment.
