Video: Ronaldo rejects Juventus captain’s armband for one surprising reason
Cristiano Ronaldo sportingly refused to wear the captain’s armband and handed it to Blaise Matuidi in a class gesture.
Gonzalo Higuain passed the armband to Ronaldo who humbly rejected the armband. He then handed it to Matuidi as a mark of respect.
Gonzalo Higuain passes the captains armband to Cristiano Ronaldo, Cristiano then gives the captaincy to Blaise Matuidi👏🏻
RESPECT. pic.twitter.com/nwIRN3yw3h
— Cristiano Ronaldo ⬜⬛ 🐐 (@Cr7Fran4ever) December 15, 2019
The Frenchman has been at Juventus since 2017, longer than Ronaldo who joined the Serie A club in 2018 and the Portuguese superstar acknowledged that as he turned down the chance to captain his side.
Ronaldo gave his teammate a hug after passing on the armband. Matuidi described the gesture as “world class”.
His gesture confirms what Jose Mourinho said about the difference between a captain and a leader.
“I’ve had captains that were not leaders,” he explained. “Normally, the connection is the armband and this guy is the captain, this guy is the leader.
“No, many times the captain is not the leader. These two guys [Javier Zanetti and John Terry] were leaders and when you have these leaders you become more [of] a coach, you focus more on the coaching side of it.
“The captain and the leader, there’s a big, big difference.
“You don’t buy leaders, you don’t make leaders. When you have them, your team is one step ahead.
“But, importantly, now football is full of image and people give more attention to the ones that look [like leaders than] to the ones that really are.”
"World class", le parole usate da #Matuidi per definire il gesto di #Ronaldo.
Un gesto di classe verso chi dà tutto sè stesso per la squadra.
Anche questo è essere un gruppo!Bravo @Cristiano! 👏👏👏#JuveUdinese pic.twitter.com/dxvyr2nYeq
— La Maglia Bianconera (@La_Bianconera) December 16, 2019
Read Also: Ronaldo makes history as Juventus go top
Ronaldo, meanwhile, scored twice as Juventus beat Udinese 3-1. He bagged a first half brace with Leonardo Bonucci also getting on the scoresheet.
Juventus remain in second place, level on points (39) with league leaders Inter Milan.