With Cristiano Ronaldo’s debut campaign with Juventus coming to a close, a high-profile pundit has highlighted how he believes the five-time Ballon d’Or winner has let the Italian giants down.
Although Ronaldo was a regular goalscorer in the Bianconeri’s league title-winning campaign, many have questioned whether his move to Juve has been as effective as it was intended to be, after his nine years at Real Madrid.
While it was widely thought that the 34-year-old was bought to help inspire the Italian giants to win the UEFA Champions League, former Arsenal midfielder and now pundit Stewart Robson feels it was the forward’s selfishness that was the most disappointing thing to see.
“Has it been a success for Juventus? Not quite so much. In the last few years every year they’ve won the double, but they didn’t win Coppa Italia, they got knocked out in the quarter finals,” he told ESPN FC.
“He was brought in to do much better in the Champions League and they performed really poorly against Ajax and they were outplayed. He ended being the lone centre forward and was really up against it.
“You can’t actually blame Ronaldo for Juventus’ failure. I think the one problem he has, and Juventus have, is that he’s purely selfish.
“There’s many, many times where he could pick out a good pass, deliver a good cross, and he went for a shot himself. That’s the one area I would say he let Juve down, he was a bit too selfish and other players were looking for him too eagerly.
“He had a big influence on the team but not always for the better of Juve. But I think he looked happy with his performances and happy at Juve. He’ll stay there and enjoy his football next season.”
Ronaldo has scored 28 goals and assisted a further 13 strikes in 48 games for Juve so far this season.
By Kurt Buckerfield