Cristiano Ronaldo scored 18 goals for Manchester United in this season of the English Premier League and occupies the third spot in the list of highest goalscorers. But that was not enough for him to earn a spot on the eight-man shortlist for the Premier League Player award. And former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand believes that Ronaldo will take this Player of the Season nomination snub as “disrespect.”
Rio Ferdinand, who has played with Ronaldo in Alex Ferguson’s title-winning teams, expressed his surprise as he feels that he would not have had Arsenal midfielder Bukayo Saka in the team. “Saka’s in the Player of the Year nominees?” Ferdinand said on his YouTube show VIBE.
IPL 2022 – FULL COVERAGE | SCHEDULE | RESULTS | ORANGE CAP | PURPLE CAP | POINTS TABLE
“I wouldn’t have had Saka in there yet, as well as he has done. I wouldn’t have had him in there ahead of Ronaldo, not this season. Who’s voted that? Ronaldo should be in ahead of three of four of those guys. He probably doesn’t win it but in terms of nominees, it’s just laughable,” the 43-year-old said.
Ferdinand even speculated that this might ignite the Potuguese great. “He [Ronaldo] will take it as a disrespect but these are the things that fuel him, he will be thinking, ‘How dare you?’ And it’s based on stats, he’s like, ‘I have banged in more goals than most of them on that list other than [Mohamed] Salah, so what are you talking about?’” Ferdinand addded
Manchester United had roped in the 37-year-old Portuguese striker ahead of the 2021-22 season from Italian club Juventus.
Ronaldo have so far scored 24 goals in the ongoing season but that was not enough to end Manchester United’s miserable trophyless run. Moreover, the Red Devils had to suffer a Champions League exit after enduring 2-1 (on aggregate) defeat against Spanish side Atletico Madrid in the last-16 tie.
Manchester United presently occupy sixth spot on the EPL points table. With 16 wins from 37 matches, Ralf Rangnick’s men have 58 points in their kitty. This clearly means that the Red Devils will not be able to take part in next season’s Champions League.
In their last Premier League encounter, Manchester United had to concede a humiliating 4-0 defeat against Brighton and Hove Albion.
Comments
0 comment