Diego Simeone’s ‘ambition’ could be the sole reason that Cristiano Ronaldo swaps Manchester United for Atlético Madrid this summer.
That’s according to Marca journalist Juan Ignacio García-Ochoa, who covers the potential controversial transfer in an opinion piece today.
Ronaldo has made it clear he wants to leave Manchester United this summer, with a disappointing campaign last season and a lack of Champions League football in the coming campaign making him seek a move.
The number of interested parties is not as high as he would hope, though, with fewer elite-level clubs interested in the Portuguese star than he might have expected.
The most likely destination at the moment seems to be Atlético Madrid, which would be highly controversial given Ronaldo’s deep ties to their biggest rivals Real Madrid.
It’s a transfer that has been rejected by groups of the club’s supporters outright, with many criticising Ronaldo, some in quite a vitriolic manner.
Juan Ignacio García-Ochoa covers that today, explaining that it’s ‘logical and perfectly understandable’ that Atlético fans don’t want the Manchester United man.
For him, it is ‘normal’ that they don’t want a player with such ties to Real Madrid, particularly one who is a legend at the Bernabeu and even ‘confronted them’ after a hattrick for Juventus.
He admits that the move ‘would be bad for both parties’ but believes some of the criticism of the player has been ‘outrageous’. For him, questions about his effort, lack of humility and generosity and whatever else are wide of the mark.
Juan Ignacio García-Ochoa agrees that Ronaldo would be a ‘squeaky wheel’ at Atlético and ‘anyone can see that’ but insists his values would fit in with those at the Wanda Metropolitano.
That is something he thinks Diego Simeone is more than aware of as well because the Argentine and Ronaldo ‘share the same values’ and one of those is above all… ‘ambition’.
In other words, Ronaldo and Simeone’s shared ambition could be so strong that they would ignore all the signals and clamour about a move from Manchester United being wrong.
Whether a move happens remains to be seen, and all the current signals are that it won’t, but this is the first indication from someone in Spain that Atlético, and particularly Simeone, might not care about the noise being generated at the idea.
