Referee complains: “Ronaldo is very complicated”
Honduran referee Said Martínez criticized the Portuguese international’s behavior on the field, but revealed that, after what happened, the Al Nassr forward apologized to him.
Said Martínez has already had the privilege of refereeing several matches with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi on the field, but he revealed that, last year, in a game in Saudi Arabia for Al Nassr , the Honduran referee had a lot of difficulty dealing with the Portuguese international.
In the first half of that home match against Damac, the forward had two goals disallowed and one goal conceded was validated, despite Ronaldo considering that he had been fouled, which caused a huge discussion, as stated by the referee.
” Cristiano Ronaldo is very complicated, because of his temperament, he is a very competitive guy, which makes him feel very unfair. We didn’t disallow two goals, with VAR and everything, but there was one incident that made him uncomfortable, because he felt he was fouled in attack and that led to an own goal, and they fell behind at the end of the first half,” Martínez began by saying, in a conversation with Rely Maradiaga on MedioTiempo , before revealing the 39-year-old’s reaction.
“He stood 10 meters away from me and from there he said to me: ‘It’s always the same with you, you always think you’re the stars and we’re the stars’, in perfect Spanish, but he started calmly and then got upset while I watched him with a provocative face”, he said, explaining how he dealt with the situation and that Ronaldo ended up apologizing to him.
“I asked him to come closer, Cristiano is Cristiano and if he doesn’t want to, he doesn’t come closer, but he came to me and said: ‘You’re a great player, but what you said to me at half-time isn’t right, I respect you a lot, but we’re here to do our job like you’re doing’. He replied: ‘Yes, you’re right, that wasn’t the way I should express myself, I apologise’. Yes, he apologised and in the second half he didn’t complain about anything and even scored a great goal from a free kick”, he concluded.
