Manchester United forward, Cristiano Ronaldo has said he will silence his critics and that they “do not want to see” his defensive work.
Naija News reports that Ronaldo has been pivotal to United in Europe and the Premier League, providing late winners in both of their Champions League group-stage victories to date.
In an interview with Sky Sports, the Portuguese slammed his critics for not seeing the positives of his game and said even as he enters his 20th season as a professional, his winning desire still burns as brightly as ever.
After breaking the all-time international goalscoring record, Cristiano Ronaldo says it is not his time to retire from international football yet because he wants to set the target much higher.
He said: “I know when the team needs my help defensively. But my role in the club is to win, help the team to win and to score goals – [the defensive side] is part of my job.
“The people who don’t want to see that is because they don’t like me but to be honest I’m 36, I win everything so am I going to be worried about the people who say bad things about me? I sleep good at night. I go to my bed with my conscience very good. Keep going with that because I will still close mouths and win things.
“Criticism is always part of the business. I’m not worried about that. And I see it as a good thing to be honest. If they worry about me or they speak about me, it’s because they know my potential and value in football still. So it’s good. I’ll give you an example: if you’re in a school and you’re the best student, you ask the worst student if he likes the best, they’ll say they don’t like him.
“I think the main word is that I’m still happy and enjoying football. It doesn’t matter how many things I won in my career. I win everything but I’m still motivated. I’m in a new chapter of my life, even with my age, and this is why I am here – to try to win and I think Manchester needs to be at this level of winning and thinking to win big things so I’m here to help.”
Speaking on the huge potential in the United team, Ronaldo said he believes in the squad to bring silverware back to Old Trafford for the first time since 2017.
He revealed instead of singing a song for his second United induction, he gave his teammates a motivational speech about how he wanted to use his winning mentality to take them to that level.
He said: “I said what I felt in that moment: that I’m here to win things.
“Manchester United is a sign [of] winning things and I’m not here for holidays. I said to them I see huge potential in this team; very young players, players with potential, and I’m here to win and to help the team to build new stuff.
“I didn’t sing because I told them that I sang a few years ago! But it was good. The boys, they understand me, it was a good speech and I was happy that night.“
This article was originally published on Naija News