In a cheeky social media post, Manchester United player Diogo Dalot mocked Cristiano Ronaldo, his international teammate. The defender made fun of the Portugal captain for spending so much time on his phone while he was supposed to be interacting with the team, maybe in reference to his famous interview with Piers Morgan from a year ago.
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Ronaldo joined Al-Nassr in January, becoming one of the first elite European players to come to Saudi Arabia early this year, and opening the door for other great players to follow in his footsteps. Stars like Neymar, N’Golo Kante, and Karim Benzema are already playing in the Middle East, where the league hopes to expand throughout the upcoming transfer windows.
Ronaldo has received acclaim for his part in the growth of the Saudi Pro League because he was among the first to make the change. He has nonetheless received criticism while serving abroad, although in a lighthearted way.
Despite having making his views on “distractions” plain, United star Dalot mocked Ronaldo for being glued to his phone in an Instagram story earlier this week. Dalot shared a snapshot of the two wearing Portugal tracksuits with Ronaldo in the background staring down at his phone, completely oblivious to the picture being taken.
The caption on the right-back’s post said, “This new generation always on the phone @cristiano,” along with multiple laughing faces and emojis. The humorous remark came after Ronaldo criticized kids for being distracted from football and underachieving as a result.
The former Real Madrid player talked up about how the upcoming generation of footballers are emerging without the work ethic that he had in an interview with Morgan last year, which was conducted without United’s consent and ultimately resulted in his contract with the club being amicably terminated.
“Their appetite [varies]. The Portugal star said, “I think they have things more easily, everything is easy, they don’t struggle, and they don’t care. “‘The youths are not the same of my generation,’ I don’t mean just a handful at Manchester United, but all the teams in all leagues throughout the world. But you can’t hold it against them since it’s a fact of life for the younger generation and the distractions come from new technologies.
“I’m not surprised by it. However, it’s also unfortunate if people don’t at least duplicate what you did despite having the best examples in front of them. It would be interesting to watch if Ronaldo seeks revenge on Dalot while they are both still on international duty or if the importance of the next games against Slovakia and Bosnia and Herzegovina will be a bigger distraction.
