Ten Hag Says Ronaldo Has Not Delivered for Seven or Eight Years

• Erik ten Hag says Cristiano Ronaldo has not delivered for “seven or eight years” and that it is over.
• Ten Hag credits Real Madrid with selling Ronaldo for £99million in 2018 at the right moment.
• It is ten Hag’s second public criticism of Ronaldo this month, per Mirror.

The Former United Manager Dates Ronaldo’s Decline to Real Madrid

Erik ten Hag has handed down a blunt verdict on Cristiano Ronaldo’s career, and he did it on Dutch television on Sunday. Appearing on the programme Goedemorgen Eredivisie, the former Manchester United manager said that “for the last seven or eight years, he just hasn’t been able to deliver.” Ten Hag places the end of Ronaldo’s top-level days at the point he left Real Madrid in 2018, and he says that from Juventus onwards it is over. Ronaldo is 41 and still scoring for Al-Nassr. Ten Hag coached him for a five-month spell at Old Trafford, and this is the second time in less than two weeks that he has criticised him in public.

What Ten Hag Said on Dutch Television

Ten Hag, now Twente’s technical director, started with a principle. “Every top team must embrace the top player, but the top player must work for the team,” he said. “That was the problem with Ronaldo.”

He added that the players wanted to work for Ronaldo and looked up to him naturally. Then came the verdict on the years that followed.

Ten Hag credits Real Madrid with seeing the decline coming. The club sold Ronaldo for £99million in 2018. “That is Real Madrid’s great gift: they know when to part ways with players whose level is declining at the right moment,” he said.

The numbers from Ronaldo’s next club tell a different story. He left Juventus in 2021 to rejoin United under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer after scoring 101 goals in 134 games for the Italian side. Weeks before the transfer, he finished as joint-top scorer at the European Championship.

Ten Hag’s Case on Fitness at United

Ten Hag says he laid out his plans before the season started. “I explained to him how we wanted to play, what I expected of him, and what he could expect from me,” he said. The rest, in his telling, was up to the player.

His claim is that Ronaldo could no longer push himself every day in training to get fit. “If you are not fit in the Premier League, you stand no chance,” he said.

The interviewer put it to him that Ronaldo has a famous fitness record and keeps scoring for Al-Nassr at 41. Ten Hag replied: “That is the perception, and that is of course how he became so great.” He went on to say that Ronaldo could no longer find the energy to do it daily, and that the laws of the Premier League are ruthless for anyone who cannot keep up.

He described the call on Ronaldo as a team decision. “I have to make choices in the interest of the team,” he said, and he put the final choice with the player: whether or not he wanted to make that investment.

How the Feud Got Here

The Sunday appearance follows a Q&A published on 21 October, in which ten Hag criticised Ronaldo’s preparation and said he “let the team down” by failing to prepare properly for matches. After United were outrun by 13.8km against Brentford, ten Hag made his players run the same distance as punishment, in three laps. Ronaldo ran only two of the three. Ten Hag also said Ronaldo told teammates to save their legs in training.

Ronaldo played 16 times for ten Hag. The manager dropped him to the bench early in the 2022/23 Premier League season, and Ronaldo then refused to come on as a substitute against Tottenham. Ten Hag left him out of the next game, against Chelsea in October 2022. Ronaldo gave an interview to Piers Morgan and said he felt betrayed. He left United in November 2022 and signed for Saudi Pro League side Al-Nassr in the winter transfer window.

Ronaldo’s Own Recent Troubles

Ten Hag is not the only manager to have fallen out with Ronaldo. The 41-year-old claimed he felt betrayed by Portugal boss Jorge Jesus after broken promises, walked out on the national team, and then asked the Portuguese FA to punish him. That response was far more contrite than Ronaldo ever was in his spat with ten Hag.

Ronaldo is approaching 1,000 goals in his career, and he has said he wants to reach that mark in a Portugal shirt.

The Question Left Behind

Ten Hag has now made his case twice in under two weeks, first in a Q&A and then on Dutch television. His position is clear: the top player must work for the team, and Ronaldo stopped doing that years ago. The goals still arriving at 41, and the 101 Juventus goals in 134 games, make the idea that Ronaldo is finished a hard line to agree with.