Cristiano Ronaldo stirred controversy amongst Juventus followers when he took a playful jab at Wojciech Szczesny, suggesting the goalkeeper needed to “retire earlier than getting an opportunity to play for a giant membership.” The remark, made throughout a latest assembly with Szczesny, didn’t sit nicely with Juventus supporters, who noticed it as a slight towards their membership. Ronaldo, who scored over 100 targets for the Bianconeri from 2018 to 2021 and shared the locker room with Szczesny throughout that point, appeared to indicate that Barcelona—the place Szczesny lately got here out of retirement to play—was a much bigger membership than Juventus.
The Portuguese star’s comment sparked a backlash from Juventus followers, a lot of whom took offence on the suggestion that their membership was inferior to Barcelona. Regardless of the criticism, Ronaldo has proven little concern concerning the destructive response. His remark has additionally drawn responses from pundits, together with journalist Riccardo Trevisani, who defended Juventus’s legacy within the wake of the controversy.
Trevisani, addressing Ronaldo’s feedback, said, “At Juventus, they realized that Cristiano Ronaldo price greater than he produced, so that they let him go. Juve has a 130-year historical past; it was there earlier than Ronaldo and it will likely be there after him. Not even a champion like him can compromise the historical past of Juventus. In the long run, the membership let him go very calmly.” Trevisani’s phrases spotlight the notion that whereas Ronaldo might have been a star participant, Juventus’s stature and historical past as a membership far exceed the presence of any particular person, irrespective of how achieved.
Ronaldo’s time at Juventus was marked by private success, with spectacular goal-scoring numbers, but it surely was additionally a interval of combined outcomes for the membership. His departure, in response to many, was seen as essential to stability the membership’s funds and restructure the staff. Whereas the comment about Szczesny might have been supposed as a light-hearted joke, it struck a nerve, reminding everybody that Juventus’s repute as a historic soccer powerhouse just isn’t one thing to be questioned, even by a participant of Ronaldo’s calibre. The membership’s historical past of success, longevity, and fanbase make it excess of only a stepping stone in any participant’s profession.
