Rafael van der Vaart was deeply impressed by Cristiano Ronaldo’s work ethic during their time together at Real Madrid. The 109-time international shares a remarkable anecdote to illustrate how dedicated the Portuguese star was to his craft.
Rafael van der Vaart shares an anecdote about Cristiano Ronaldo
Van der Vaart and Ronaldo were teammates during the 2009/2010 season at Real Madrid. “I always joke that Ronaldo is the only player whose willy I never saw!” laughs Van der Vaart in a conversation with talkSPORT. “Because he was the first to arrive at the training ground and the last to leave.” The hard work of the now 39-year-old Ronaldo paid off. “I looked at his body and thought: wow, what a machine. He was ahead of his time. Now all players are physically similar. His training, in the gym, his diet, it was all very important to him.”
According to the former Ajax player, Ronaldo was obsessed with scoring goals. “He had to score. It was the same with Ruud van Nistelrooij. If you didn’t pass the ball to him, he would shout: hey, do you want to win? Why aren’t you passing the ball to me?! Ronaldo was incredibly self-centered. If we won 6-0 and he didn’t score, he wasn’t happy. If we lost but he scored twice, that was okay!” However, the analyst asserts that Ronaldo didn’t play just for himself. “No, no, that’s not the case. It was simply a matter of him needing to score a goal,” he concludes.
