‘He only looked at me as a business relationship’ – Cristiano Ronaldo says he left Real Madrid because of president Florentino Perez

Cristiano Ronaldo has opened up on his relationship with Real Madrid president Florentino Perez and how he contributed to him leaving for Juventus in a £100million deal.

Speaking to France Football magazine, Ronaldo noted that Perez’ treatment towards him forced his move out of Real Madrid to Juventus.

‘He only ever looked at me as a business relationship,’ Ronaldo said. ‘I know it. What he told me never came from the heart.

‘I felt it inside the club, especially from the president, that they no longer considered me the same way that they did in the start. In the first four or five years there, I had the feeling of being ‘Cristiano Ronaldo’. Less afterwards.

‘The president looked at me through eyes that didn’t want to say the same thing, as if I was no longer indispensable to them, if you know what I mean.

‘That’s what made me think about leaving. Sometimes I’d look at the news, where they were saying I was asking to leave. There was a bit of that, but the truth is that I always had the impression that the president would not hold me back.’

The Portuguese footballer also noted that money did not motivate his move to Italy, adding that if it was money he would have moved to China.

‘If it had all been about money, I’d have moved to China, where I would have earned five times as much than here [at Juventus] or at Real,’ Ronaldo said.

‘I did not come to Juve for the money. I earned the same in Madrid, if not more. The difference is that, at Juve, they really wanted me. They told me that and made it clear. They showed me that.’