Rumours continue to swirl about the future of Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo. The 37-year-old has not featured for Manchester United during their preseason and only this week returned to the club for training.
One of the destinations linked with a move for Ronaldo has been Atletico Madrid. Yet if there was any doubt about whether fans of Los Rojiblancos would accept a player who starred for rivals Real Madrid, those have been categorically answered.
On Sunday Atletico fans took to Twitter to protest his signing publicly, while President Enrique Cerezo referred to the rumours as invented on Tuesday evening. He also called the transfer almost impossible.
This feeling continued into Wednesday when Atletico Madrid’s official supporters clubs penned a public letter, which expressed their rejection of the signing.
Diego Simeone’s side also opened their preseason a few hours later against Numancia, where fans unfurled a banner reading “CR7 not welcome.”
While the likelihood of his arrival seemed slim anyway, these events should confirm that Ronaldo’s signing would be a bad idea. Simeone relies on the connection between his team and their fans to create the conditions for success. A split with the fanbase that this would cause would damage any hope of that.
