Cristiano Ronaldo, the world’s most well manicured futbolero, was interviewed by CNN Español about the FIFA corruption scandal that led to the arrest of several high-ranking officials and the resignation of president Sepp Blatter. Andres Oppenheimer started off by acknowledging that CristiRo was there to talk about his new line of sporting headphones, but he wanted to do some real journalism and asked him about FIFA and Qatar. Ronaldo explained that as a soccer player, the only thing he worries about is how he plays the game.
Oppenheimer didn’t think that answer was good enough, and he decided to keep pushing, this time asking what his teammates thought about the scandal. Ronaldo was all like: I’m not their spokesperson, ask them. Locker room talk for Ronaldo and his teammates is “about music, about women, about fashion, about shoes [also fashion], about suitcases/bags [fashion-ish], about jewelry [more fashion], about haircut [a step removed from fashion].” Oppenheimer didn’t let up, and continued to press the issue. Ronaldo freaked out, switched to speaking Portuguese under his breath, cuts off Oppenheimer, and snaps his fingers before moving into cursing in English. “Speak about FIFA, I don’t care about FIFA. And Qatar…I don’t give a fuck. What you want me to do?” he said before walking off.
I think Ronaldo just proved that there’s nothing more satisfying than saying fuck in a moment of frustration. And yes, he’s sometimes a big baby, but this was definitely a bait-and-switch. Oppenheimer probably should have dropped the topic earlier. The only winner in this is us, because we still were able to see this video, which could have been more dramatic if they had been in the same room.