The Portugal forward was substituted twice for Juventus in recent weeks and looked animated on both the occasions.
Juventus' Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo leaves the pitch to be substituted during the Italian Serie A football match Juventus vs AC Milan on November 10, 2019 at the Juventus Allianz stadium in Turin. (Photo by Marco Bertorello / AFP)
Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo has put an end to the rumours of rift with club manager Maurizio Sarri saying that “there was no controversy” between the two and it is the media that spread such rumours.
“For the last three weeks, I have been playing limited,” the Juventus forward told reporters as quoted by Record after scoring his 99th international goal in Portugal’s 2-0 Euro 2020 qualifying win over Luxembourg on Sunday. “There was no controversy, you create controversy.”
Notably, the Portuguese star was substituted twice for Juventus in recent weeks. For the first time, he was replaced by Paulo Dybala in a Champions League match against Lokomotiv Moscow on November 6, where he looked animated and exchanged words with Sarri before making his way to the bench.
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Four days later the former Real Madrid forward was again replaced by Dybala during a Serie A clash against Milan and this time again the 34-year-old looked frustrated, and stormed down the tunnel.
However, Ronaldo himself played down his angry reaction by saying, “I don’t like to be replaced, but I have been playing limited for the last three weeks, I tried to help Juventus, even playing injured.
Later, justifying his substitution by saying that he is not fully fit, Ronaldo said, “I’m still not 100% but when it comes to sacrificing for the club or team I do it with pride because I know there were a lot of games up for grabs.
“There has been a lot of controversy on this subject, without there being much to see.
“We won. Juventus is in first place, we (Portugal) qualified and I will be 100% fit as fast as possible.”
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