It comes a year after he urged Ronaldo to “do himself a favour” and retire from the game.

A former Real Madrid player has accused Cristiano Ronaldo of “not knowing how to play football” in a quite remarkable outburst during a recent podcast appearance.

Antonio Cassano, a former Italy international who played for Roma, Real Madrid and AC Milan during an 18-year playing career, has never held back when it comes to the subject of Ronaldo.

Back in 2021, he described the former Manchester United forward as selfish. “He doesn’t care if others score, he only lives to score himself,” Cassano said. “He doesn’t live for football, he lives for his own goals, it’s clear.”

He would later name five players who are better than Ronaldo in the history of football, after super agent Jorge Mendes said the five-time Ballon d’Or winner was the greatest of all time.

“Enough of Jorge Mendes,” he said on Christian Vieri’s Twitch channel. “He is not even among the top five: Messi, Pele, Maradona, Cruyff and Ronaldo ‘O Fenómeno are on another level.”

Then, following a slow start to the 2022/23 campaign, Ronaldo was urged to hang up his boots by the no-nonsense Cassano.

“At this point, Cristiano should love himself, do himself a favour and understand that, if he cannot reach a level, he must end his career,” the Italian told the Muschio Selvaggio podcast.

“He has won everything, he has been a phenomenon. Now it’s time to retire.”

Cassano added: “I have a lot of respect for CR7, but I don’t like him as a player. [Lionel] Messi is like [Diego] Maradona. He had to leave Argentina at the age of 14 and face serious physical problems, which speaks of sacrifices.”

The 42-year-old forward, who scored 139 goals throughout his career compared to Ronaldo’s current tally of 902, spent two years at the Bernabeu between 2006 and 2008, scoring just four times.

Compare that to Ronaldo’s record of 450 goals and there is some distance between the two.

But once again, Cassano has made his feelings clear on Portugal’s all-time top goalscorer. “Cristiano Ronaldo doesn’t know how to play football,” he told the Viva El Futbol podcast. “He could score 3,000 goals, I don’t give a f***.”

He added: “[Gonzalo] Higuain, [Sergio] Aguero, [Karim] Benzema, [Robert] Lewandowski, [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic and [Luis] Suarez knew how to link-up with the team.

“They knew how to do a lot of things, unlike Ronaldo whose only objective has always been to score.”

Image credit: Getty

Cassano once claimed that Ronaldo was so upset by his comments that he sent him messages demanding respect for what he has achieved in the game.

“Ronaldo wrote me messages,” the former Inter striker said on Christian Vieri’s Twitch channel.

“Cristiano Ronaldo, telling me that I need to have respect for him because of the trophies he’s won and the goals he’s scored. I’m not afraid to tell the truth, I’ll face anyone; from the Pope to the last on this earth.

“I called Buffon and he confirmed that he gave my number to the press officer, who turned it over to Ronaldo so he could tell me he’s scored 750 goals and I only got 150.

“To him I’d just say: dear Cristiano, you have everything. Be calm and relaxed. Take your example from Messi, he doesn’t give a damn about anything or anyone.

“He sent me a message, honestly it’s the truth. Gigi Buffon knows it well, Gigi laughed about it. Chiellini knows too. It made me angry.”