Source: Telegraph
Cristiano Ronaldo 'not arrogant' says Patrice Evra
Ronaldo has started life in the Spanish capital in incredible form, scoring seven goals in six games and becoming the first Real Madrid player ever to score in his first four league matches for the club.
However, he continues to be criticised for his perceived self-satisfaction, though Evra claims that image has nothing to do with the real Ronaldo.
‘’He’s not arrogant,’’ Evra said. ‘’He suffers as a result of his image as a fashion guy but honestly, he’s the greatest professional I have ever trained with.
‘’He never has enough of it. This lad has to be first everywhere in everything. If you play ping-pong with him he can’t stand losing.
‘’And in life, he’s really a good guy. He’s calm, he loves joking around, he really likes teasing people... In fact he’s a bit like [David] Beckham.
‘’He’s driven. They don’t give themselves the right to make mistakes.’’
Evra also dismissed accusations Ronaldo is a diver and goes down too easily following tackles.
‘’There has also been a lot of fouls against him which were never given because of his reputation,” said Evra.
‘’When you look at the tackles he gets each game, well quite frankly the lad has reason to dive... if not he would break himself. After, OK, he reacts badly. We also used to tease him.’’
Evra spent three and a half years at Old Trafford with Ronaldo and saw a maturation in the Portuguese in that time.
‘’Yes he changed,’’ said Evra. ‘’At the end he had even more hunger, trained even more.
‘’Because he needed to be the best. I don’t know he will act at Real.
‘’At United no one plays the star. When you’re with people such as Ryan Giggs or Paul Scholes, legends of this club, you can’t. It’s impossible.’’
