The Juventus legend, Giorgio Chiellini, spoke on a podcast about his former teammate, Cristiano Ronaldo, with whom he played at the Italian club for three years. The 39-year-old remarked that when Cristiano Ronaldo arrived at Juventus, the Portuguese footballing star had a mad desire to prove himself stronger than his former club Real Madrid after winning several trophies with them.
During his nine-year tenure with Real Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo played 438 matches for them, scoring 450 goals across all competitions. He won two La Ligas, four UEFA Champions League, three FIFA Club World Cups, and a multitude of other trophies with Real Madrid during the prime of his career, but he still had a love-hate relationship with the fans at the Spanish club.
After leaving Real Madrid in 2018, Cristiano Ronaldo joined Juventus where he played alongside Giorgio Chiellini, who spoke about his tenure at the Italian club during the BSMT podcast. He was quoted as saying, as per JuventusNews24, “In his first year at Juventus, Cristiano Ronaldo had a mad desire to prove that he was stronger than Real Madrid.”
Giorgio Chiellini also spoke about the UEFA Champions League 2018-19 campaign, which had ended at the quarter-final stage at the expense of Ajax, despite the involvement of Cristiano Ronaldo. He said, “We were unfortunate to suffer a series of injuries that caused our defeat to Ajax because otherwise we would have made it all the way.”
“I am convinced that someone like him (Cristiano Ronaldo) would lead you to great triumphs. Then, in the following years, the level of the team dropped a bit, while he got older and could no longer solve everything on his own,” Giorgio Chiellini summed up Cristiano Ronaldo’s time at Juventus from 2018 to 2021, which saw him score 101 goals in 134 matches