A former Juventus player has launched an extraordinary attack on Cristiano Ronaldo, calling him "ignorant" and saying he has no respect for his teammates.
Ronaldo has had a frustrating time of it recently, missing four club games after testing positive for coronavirus while on international duty and being criticised by Italy's sports minister for flying to Turin after his diagnosis.
But he is now Covid-free, returning with two goals against Spezia and playing his part in Juve's 4-1 Champions League win over Ferencvaros on Wednesday.
Overall, Ronaldo has 70 goals in 93 Juventus games and is widely seen to have settled in superbly since his €100 million move from Real Madrid. But not according to Italian football pundit Pasquale Bruno, who played for Juventus from 1987 to 1990.
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He put Ronaldo on blast during an appearance on Italian TV show 'Tiki Taka', specifically for his lack of Italian language skills.
"He is ignorant," began Bruno, per the Daily Mail. "He has been in Italy for two years and has not yet learned to speak our language.
"He uses Spanish to express himself. He has no respect for his teammates or for the Italians."
Bruno's views don't quite concur with what you actually hear coming out of the Juventus dressing room.
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Colombia international Juan Cuadrado was full of praise after Ronaldo's match-winning display off the bench against Spezia, saying: "Ronaldo is very happy, he couldn't wait to come back and play. You saw that from the moment he stepped onto the pitch.
"He's an extra weapon for us, we all know what he gives to the team. He is very confident and that helps us too, passing on the professionalism and desire to win that we all ought to have."
Clearly Bruno believes Ronaldo is a 'weapon' of a different variety. And while there's no doubting the 35-year-old's effectiveness in Serie A, some have questioned whether he really feels a connection to Juve. Ronaldo was strongly linked to a move to Paris Saint-Germain earlier this year and some believe the Italian giants are just a stop on his final world tour.
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But there's no doubting his desire and commitment to succeed. And as Ronaldo already speaks excellent Portuguese, English, Spanish (and probably some Italian too, no doubt) we seriously doubt he is "ignorant" as Bruno claims.
Let's just hope Pasquale Bruno never witnesses SPORTbible trying to order breakfast in Italy on holiday. Then he'll see what true ignorance and bad Italian language skills are really about.
All imagery: PA Images
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