Cristiano Ronaldo would receive praise if he admitted he can no longer cut it at Manchester United and accepted his new status.
That’s according to former striker Antonio Cassano, who has admitted he ‘would applaud’ the Portuguese superstar for taking that stance.
Ronaldo will be spending this weekend sat at home after being kicked out of the Manchester United squad by manager Erik ten Hag.
That decision came after Ronaldo refused to come off the bench in the win over Tottenham, instead electing to visibly storm off the pitch and down the tunnel.
He has since been fined by Manchester United for his actions and told to train with the Under 23s for now, with Ten Hag taking a hard-line approach to the situation.
While the Dutchman has been widely praised for his actions, Ronaldo has received criticism from all corners, despite issuing a public apology for his actions.
Cassano is the latest to share his opinion on the matter and says he would respect Ronaldo much more if he just accepted his decreased standing in the game.
“You have to have self-respect and the dignity to say, ‘I have finished’,” Tuttomercatoweb report him saying.
“His agent and those around him pass him off as the strongest, but they haven’t understood that he hasn’t made it for 3-4 years.
“He will continue to score goals in a thousand ways, but in terms of movement he can’t do it anymore.
“He must have self-love, this summer he should have said to himself: ‘OK, I’ll go to Sporting, I’ll do the World Cup and goodbye to everyone’. Instead, he messes up Manchester United, his team, with whom he made history.
“Then he makes these figures, figures that I could have made. He has the eyes of the world on him, and he behaves like that. Ten Hag is consistent, he plays him 10-15 minutes.
“He would go to America, to China, to Dubai. In the football that counts, he doesn’t fit in anymore. Athleticism is over, he would raise his hand and say enough. And I would applaud him.”
