Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has revealed Cristiano Ronaldo asked him to bench him when he was at Manchester United and then got angry when he did.
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ToggleSolskjaer jumped at the opportunity to sign Ronaldo late in the summer of 2021, causing a wave of excitement and a social media frenzy. But he has admitted that Ronaldo's return did not go as planned and spoke about the player's volcanic personality.
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“Cristiano – when you know him and speak to him, he wanted to play three out of four games, he realised he’s getting older as well. But when you leave him out once, he’s not happy!" Solskjaer told the podcast, brought to you by Sky Bet. "Part of signing Cristiano Ronaldo was getting that passion from him, but that did have its complications. You’ve got Mason Greenwood, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial, who can learn from Cristiano as he’s the best, the most disciplined and he’s been the best player in the world, and you think he’s going to help them. When he arrived at the club, he told me to start him for three games in a row, and then put me on the bench for the fourth game, but he’s so passionate so when I did that, he didn’t like it."
Ronaldo had a stunning start to his return with United, scoring twice on his debut against Newcastle and snatching winners in the Champions League against Villarreal and Atalanta. But the team's form dipped and after heavy defeats by Leicester City, Liverpool, Manchester City and Watford, Solskjaer was sacked in November. The Norwegian added: “With the ball, with him in the team, it was no problem. Without him [pressing], we had to change a little bit the different roles we’d gotten used to. We were one of the highest pressing teams before [Ronaldo joined]. We let Dan James go when Cristiano came in, and they’re two different types of players. It was the right decision to make for me – it didn’t turn out to be the right one.”
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Despite the complicated side of Ronaldo's personality, Solskjaer stressed that there was a lot of mutual respect between them. “I had a good relationship with Cristiano and there’s loads of respect between us. I think he behaved really well in his disappointments when I was there," he added. Solskjaer's successor Erik ten Hag had more problems with Ronaldo, who left a match with Tottenham early and was subsequently suspended from the team. He left the club in November 2022 after lashing out at the club in an interview with Piers Morgan.