Cristiano Ronaldo 'gave up his money' to Real Madrid teammate after learning he was leaving the club

A former teammate of Cristiano Ronaldo's has he revealed he offered to "give up his money" in order to convince him to stay at Real Madrid.

With a decorated career that has spanned 23 years, Ronaldo has been colleagues with a whole lost of different players for club and country.

But he has a special connection with Kepler Laveran de Lima Ferreira, better known as 'Pepe'. The two have played alongside one another in 349 games, having started out in the Sporting CP academy together many years back.

Having been teammates for the Portugal national team, they became club colleagues at Real Madrid in 2009 and spent eight years in Los Blancos colours.

Pepe was the first to leave, ending a decade of service after a third Champions League win in 2017. The no-nonsense centre-back struggled with injury in his final season and left on a free transfer for Besiktas.

But Ronaldo did his very best to convince Pepe to stay put, offering him to give him money in the event that his departure was driven by financial reasons.

Pepe politely declined the proposal from the five-time Ballon d'Or winner, explaining that his exit was purely for a fresh start playing football in Turkey.

"I talked to him a lot and he told me to stay at Real Madrid," Pepe recalled in an interview with Renascenca.

"But I think my time at the club had come, because it was a very demanding 10 years, where I gave up a lot of time. I tried to explain to him that I could no longer be there because of the difficulties I was having at the time and he said: 'If it’s about the money, mate, I’ll give up my money to give it to you!' And I said no: 'Thank God it’s not about that, it’s for other reason'. I also wanted to get back to feeling football, and that’s it, I decided to go to Turkey."

Pepe and Ronaldo are long-time friends and teammates. Image: Getty

At the end of the interview, Pepe sent a special message to his friend as he celebrated turning 40 two days after scoring a brace for Al Nassr in the AFC Champions League.

Pepe said: "I want to wish you a happy birthday. May these 40 years be filled with lots of happiness, lots of wisdom and, above all, may you be the human being that you are, always helping others. We, and I in particular, know that you are one of those people who really helps others. May you be the father, husband and friend that you are to your loved ones, okay? A big hug, friend."

Pepe has a upcoming birthday himself as he turns 42 later this month. He retired in the summer following on from Portugal's defeat to France in the Euro 2024 quarter-finals.