Cristiano Ronaldo walked out of an interview with CNN Español, after reacting angrily to the interviewer’s line of questioning over the FIFA corruption scandal.
The Real Madrid forward, who was intending to speak to CNNE about a new range of headphones he was launching in the U.S., got irked when interviewer Andrés Oppenheimer asked him whether his teammates ever discussed the crisis at the heart of soccer’s governing body in the locker room, reports CNN.
“You want to know the truth?” the 30-year-old Portuguese soccer star said in Spanish, according to CNN’s translation. “We don’t speak about it at all. I do my profession, my job, I give my all for my club … the rest doesn’t matter to me. I don’t care what happens on the outside.”
When asked what the guys did talk about, Ronaldo said, “music, about women, about fashion, about shoes … about jewelry, about haircuts …”
But when Oppenheimer broached the subject of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Ronaldo wasn’t having any of it and walked out of the interview.
“This is bullsh-t. Speak about FIFA, I don’t care about FIFA. And Qatar … I don’t give a f-ck,” Ronaldo said in English. “What you want me to do? Speak about product, he speaks about FIFA … come on.”
CNN’s English transcript of the interview is here.
[CNN]
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Write to Helen Regan at helen.regan@timeasia.com