By Boyega Johnson
Barcelona vice-president Jordi Mestre has hit out at Cristiano Ronaldo‘s lack of humility this week, insisting that not a single player at the Nou Camp would blame their teammates like the Real Madrid man did.
Ronaldo made waves across the footballing world this weekend after making critical comments towards his fellow Los Blancos stars in the wake of Real’s ignominious 1-0 home defeat to neighbouring Atletico Madrid.
Zinedine Zidane’s side failed to cancel out Antoine Griezmann’s sole goal at the Bernabeu, with the result all-but ending their hopes of winning the title this season.
Ronaldo subsequently said: “If everyone was at my level, maybe we would be leaders”, as quoted by Spanish journalist Arancha Rodriquez, and Barca vice-president Mestre has criticised the Portuguese’s comments.
“Our team’s players would never say what Cristiano said,” he told Movistar. “The club monitors a lot of things before signing players.
“Honestly, I could not imagine one of our players saying what Cristiano said.”
Ronaldo’s words are bound to cause a stir in the Real dressing room and Barca took their chance to rub salt into their wounds on Sunday evening as they came from behind to beat Sevilla – the last team to beat them in La Liga all the way back in October – by a 2-1 scoreline thanks to goals from Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique.
It means Luis Enrique’s men now enjoy a 12-point lead over Real, who can all-but write themselves out of the title race with Atletico Madrid also sat four points ahead in second place.
Mestre was keen to add though that Barca’s bid for a second successive title isn’t done yet: “La Liga is not won at the end of February. That’s not a cliche, it’s true because we could slip up and I’m sure Real Madrid will bounce back. There are no free meals here.”
Barcelona travel to Rayo Vallecano next up while Ronaldo and co lock horns with Levante, with Zidane surely keen to put his player’s comments behind them.
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