Cristiano Ronaldo says seven words and then walks away after being asked about Lionel Messi.
Cristiano Ronaldo walked away from the mixed zone after being asked about Lionel Messi’s World Cup goalscoring record.
Ronaldo got off to a great start in the World Cup by scoring two goals in Portugal’s big 5-0 win over Uzbekistan in Group K on Tuesday. He hadn’t scored in Portugal’s first game, a 1-1 draw with DR Congo, which led to some criticism of his performance.
PSG midfielder Joao Neves stirred up some controversy when he said in a post-match press conference that Ronaldo is “no different from the others.” He said, “We know what Ronaldo has done for the national team, but right now, he’s one of us, just another player trying to help. He’s here to contribute like we all do.”
Neves’ comment sparked lots of negative reactions on Instagram from Ronaldo’s fans. Even teammate Bruno Fernandes and Neves’ girlfriend got caught up in the social media backlash.
In response, Ronaldo posted a photo of himself with teammates, including Neves, training together and captioned it: “Always united!”
With a lot of attention on the 41-year-old ahead of the Uzbekistan game, Ronaldo showed his class by scoring two goals in the first half. He scored first with a sharp finish from Joao Cancelo’s cross, then cleverly found the bottom corner after a pass from Bruno Fernandes.
At 1-0, Ronaldo chose to pass a free-kick to Nuno Mendes, who scored with a powerful shot.
After the match, Ronaldo was asked about Messi, who has already scored five goals at this World Cup. The 38-year-old Messi scored a hat-trick against Algeria and two goals against Austria, becoming the top individual scorer in World Cup history with 17 goals, passing Germany’s Miroslav Klose.
But when a reporter asked Ronaldo about Messi’s hat-trick in the mixed zone, Ronaldo didn’t seem happy and said, “I couldn’t care less about the others. Mbappe scored too.” He then walked away after raising his arm toward another reporter.
Ronaldo had already answered questions about Messi’s achievements during his earlier press conference. When asked if he’d like to face Messi one last time in a World Cup, he said, “I don’t really know what to say, because it feels like a pointless question, but anyway, it would be great.”
If both Argentina and Portugal win their groups – with Portugal needing a win over Colombia in their last game – they could meet in the quarter-finals of the 2026 World Cup.