Ronaldo "pleased" by boos
Ronaldo "pleased" by boos
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Thursday, 06, Jul 2006 08:52
Cristiano Ronaldo has claimed that he thinks his constant booing in the World Cup semi-final was some kind of compliment.
The Manchester United winger crashed out of the tournament weeping his trademark tears after France beat Portugal in a tense encounter.
After successfully getting Wayne Rooney sent off in Portugal's match against England the player winked at his bench.
The British media reacted with the expected hysteria as Ronaldo was single handedly blamed for England's defeat.
Surprisingly the crowd in last night's semi-final proved that the vitriol directed at the diving attacker is not reserved for the English.
In a remarkable show of Anglo-French relations the English fans in the ground joined with France fans and Germans in booing and whistling Ronaldo's every touch.
Ronaldo remained upbeat in the face of united condemnation: "I was pleased about being booed. Maybe France fans were upset to see a dangerous player. I'm not worried.
"We played well and did our best but the referee didn't help us. Everyone who saw the match could see that the referee wasn't fair. He should have shown yellow cards but he did not because Portugal is a small country."
Ronaldo's night got even worse when an email campaign swamped the Fifa website, to ensure that the Portuguese winger and clear leader in the vote for young player of the tournament, was beaten into second place by Ecuador's Luis Valencia.