Jamie Carragher reignites Rio Ferdinand feud over ‘embarrassing’ Cristiano Ronaldo comments
Former Liverpool captain Jamie Carragher has aimed a dig at former England team-mate Rio Ferdinand, appearing to reignite the pair’s long-running feud.
Despite being part of several England squads in the early to mid-2000s, Ferdinand and Carragher have never seen eye to eye, given their respective allegiances to rivals Liverpool and Manchester United.
What has been said between Carragher and Ferdinand?
The pair first exchanged views back in 2021, after Ferdinand mocked Carragher’s playing career.
After Carragher questioned Ronaldo’s motivation for returning to Old Trafford if he didn’t believe the club could win the league, Ferdinand said: “Carragher shouldn’t really be talking about winning leagues. He’s never done it. He doesn’t know what it means. He doesn’t know how to do it. He’s never navigated a team through it to that point to win a league.
Advert
“So I find it very difficult when he speaks with such conviction about winning leagues. You should stick to cup competitions. The moment he talks about leagues, I just mute it.”
In 2022, Carragher claimed it was “laughable” to suggest Erik ten Hag was wrong to Ronaldo out of a match, before going on to suggest Ferdinand was a “fan boy” of the Portuguese forward.
Fast-forward to 2026, and the pair were back at it again after Ferdinand posted a photograph of himself celebrating a goal in front of Carragher during his playing days, with the caption “caption this”.
Carragher replied: “Not like you to make sure you were in the picture of someone else's goal.
“You now carry on this ritual by hanging around mixed zones bothering star players & asking your lackeys to film it!”
Speaking about the back-and-forth on his podcast, the former Man Utd defender explained that he felt Carragher’s response was “really, really harsh”.
“I put one I was celebrating,” Ferdinand added. “I love celebrating, and he tried to really hammer me. I don't understand why. I don't know what it is that's rubbed him up the wrong way.
“He spat his dummy out. He was spitting feathers.”
On Friday (October 9), Carragher appeared to have a dig at Ferdinand once again during a conversation about Ronaldo’s recent spat with Portugal boss Jorge Jesus, while speaking with Gary Neville and Mark Goldbridge on The Overlap.
Ronaldo left Portugal’s training camp after a disagreement with Jesus over playing time, before later releasing a lengthy statement accusing the coach of breaking his trust.
“People think it’s good to be close to people in the game, but this is where it becomes a problem,” Carragher said.
“People like Piers Morgan and Rio Ferdinand, who are big people in the media whether you like them or not, are embarrassing themselves with the nonsense that they’re coming out with because they know Ronaldo.
“You can know someone and try to look after them, but you cannot defend the indefensible.”
Carragher continued, bringing up Ronaldo’s behaviour during the Euro 2016 final, when he went off injured in the first half before effectively acting as a manager, shouting instructions from the sidelines for the rest of the game.
“I’ve never seen anything like it," Carragher exclaimed. "When the final whistle went, everyone ran onto the pitch or towards the goalscorer, but he [Ronaldo] stopped and fell to the floor. It always has to be about him. I understand that great players are often like that, but there are times when it’s not.”
Neville admits Ronaldo is ‘hard to like’
Neville admitted that, despite playing with Ronaldo, he finds him “hard to like”.
The former United right-back added: “With Cristiano, it’s difficult because I love him, but I can’t watch what happened at United in his second period and then see him make a statement like that without saying something. He [Ronaldo] has to be pulled up on that and told [that it isn’t acceptable].
“The problem is: who is going to tell him? He isn’t going to listen to me or you [Jamie Carragher], but I can’t approve of that statement or pretend it was a good thing to do. If you love Ronaldo, it makes him more difficult to like; if you don’t like him, it makes you dislike him even more.
“I don’t think it’s irretrievable (his legacy). In another year, when he has retired, we will look back at his greatness and his football, and people might not remember this ending.
“When you have a billion pounds in the bank, the achievements he has had and the power he has, you feel you’re unbreakable, you feel you’re unstoppable. You think you can dictate to a federation or a manager what they should say.
“I’m glad the manager stood his ground. If he had read those eight points out [in Ronaldo’s social media statement], he [Ronaldo] would have lost a lot of his soul.”
Topics: Jamie Carragher, Rio Ferdinand, Cristiano Ronaldo, Premier League
Luke Davies