Ronaldo on Rangnick: 'I'd never even heard of him!'

FT Desk

• 17 Nov 2022 07:56 GMT
• 3 min read

Few were spared in Cristiano Ronaldo's recent interview with Piers Morgan, but his attack on former Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick was particularly stinging.

Rangnick replaced Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the Old Trafford hot set in November 2021, three months after Ronaldo had returned to the club from Juventus.

Their collaboration seemed successful enough from the outside, with Ronaldo scoring 18 Premier League goal under the German, even if the club failed to qualify for the Champions League last season.

READ: From Man City bid to Messi: Ronaldo-Piers Morgan interview IN FULL

But speaking to Morgan, Ronaldo lifted the lid on working under Rangnick, and it certainly wasn't flattering.

"If you're not even a coach, how are you going to be the boss of Manchester United? I'd never even heard of him," he said. "After sacking Solskjaer, they bring a sporting director in Ralf Rangnick to be coach. He is not even a coach. This surprised not only me but the whole world.

"It was a ridiculous decision. Man Utd are a step behind Man City and Liverpool because of decisions like this. I had never heard of Rangnick. And people who I spoke to hadn’t heard of him either. I called him boss but deep inside me I didn’t see him as a boss.

READ: Man Utd tear down Ronaldo mural

'Last Coca-Cola in the desert'

"These new coaches who come along, they think they have discovered the last Coca-Cola in the desert."

Rangnick had originally been planned to move upstairs to become a sporting director with Erik ten Hag installed as head coach, but he left to become Austria manager in in April this year. He has distanced himself from the Ronaldo comments.

"I'm the team boss of Austria's national team, it's not my job to judge [what Ronaldo said]," he told Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung. "That's the job of Manchester United and the sports journalists."