Al-Nassr star Cristiano Ronaldo revealed in his autobiography that he was asked to quit football to play another sport. The Portuguese showed so much talent in that sport that coaches tried to poach him for the Sporting Lisbon team. It will come as a surprise what this sport was.
A 24-year-old Ronaldo admitted in the autobiography Momentos that he loved playing ping pong, also called table tennis. However, the former Manchester United forward said he could never leave soccer for another sport.
According to Daily Mail, Ronaldo said, “After football, ping pong is my favorite sport. I love to watch professional games and I like to play.”
“I started playing as a boy in my neighborhood and at school. When I moved to the school of Sporting, I kept playing ping pong. There were plenty of tables in the athletes’ common and I spent good times there with my teammates.”
He told the story of a Sporting coach who tried to poach him for the ping pong team.
“One day the coach of the Sporting table tennis said, “I’ve seen you play and I think you can become a good table tennis player. Want to get in the team?”. “No, no thanks”, I replied without hesitation. “I want to be a footballer. Ping pong is a hobby, not a sport in which you want to be professional,” I said.”
Instead of using a racquet and a smaller ball, Ronaldo favored the bigger ball and his feet. It can be said that he made the right decision as he turned out to be one of the greatest soccer players ever.
Cristiano Ronaldo once bought a ping-pong table to practice and defeat a teammate
A famous Ronaldo story from his days at Manchester United was narrated by his former teammate Patrice Evra. “He’s a machine,” Evra said on ITV Sport’s World Cup podcast. “They [Ronaldo and Rio Ferdinand] were playing table tennis and Rio beat him and we were all screaming.”
“Ronaldo was so upset. Then he sent his cousin to buy a table tennis [table]. He trained for two weeks and came back and beat Rio in front of everyone. That’s Cristiano Ronaldo.”
Evra, who has always shown he is a massive Ronaldo supporter, has narrated many stories about the Portuguese soccer star which prove Ronaldo’s winning mentality. Ronaldo does not take defeat well and he does whatever he can to turn it into a win.
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