Former Real Madrid defender, Pepe has reportedly revealed that teammate Cristiano Ronaldo offered to part ways with some fortune in order for him to stay put at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Since then, both players have left the Bernabeu; Ronaldo, who turned 40 this week, is still playing for Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia, while Pepe retired at Porto in 2024.
However, in the 2010s, the compatriots were among the main players of a Madrid team that won four Champions League titles.
According to Forbes, in an interview with a Portuguese media, Pepe shared a story about his impending departure in 2017.
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“I spoke to him a lot and he told me to stay at Real Madrid. But I think my time at the club had already arrived, because they were 10 years of great demand, where I gave up a lot of time.
“I tried to explain to him that I could no longer be there due to the difficulties I was having at the time,” Pepe recalled.
Pepe explained how Ronaldo said: ‘If it’s about money, man, I’ll leave mine to give to you’.
“And I told him no, thank God it’s not because of that, it’s because of other issues.
“I also wanted to experience football again and that’s why I decided to go to Turkey,” added Pepe, who in his last season had been mostly benched thanks to the rise of Raphael Varane under Zinedine Zidane.
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