Piers Morgan has revealed Cristiano Ronaldo is aiming to retire from football at around the age of 40 - shortly after conducting an explosive interview which saw the Manchester United star blast his own club.
The 37-year-old forward accused the club of 'betraying' him and admitted he does not 'respect' Red Devils boss Erik ten Hag in a conversation with TV host Morgan on Sunday night - prompting chaos at Old Trafford.
And Morgan told TalkSPORT on Monday that Ronaldo believes he has about two-and-a-half years left, and is happy to play somewhere he feels happy and respected - which is apparently not the case at United.
Morgan said: 'He said he wants to retire around 40 to me. So he's got two-and-a-half years to finish but most of all, he wants to be respected and valued and he doesn't feel that under Ten Hag. That's why he's said what he's said and he feels this manager doesn't respect him.
'He (Ronaldo) said from the very start that he (Ten Hag) has tried to go out his way to score points with Ronaldo and he thinks it's very easy for managers to do that because he's the biggest name and biggest star and he can often get the headlines to distract from real problems at the club.'
TV host Morgan, a close friend of Ronaldo, admitted the interview - set to be aired in full across two episodes on Wednesday and Thursday - was done recently, but refused to reveal exactly when it happened.
He added: 'Cristiano asked me to do it, simple as that, he asked me. Recently, he's been thinking about it for a while, it's no secret he's felt a deep built-up frustration about what's been happening at Manchester United.
'I'm not going to say [when it took place]. [We'd] done it recently but that's between me and Cristiano. He's been thinking about this for a while then I got a call "I want to do it now" and I think part of the timing was the World Cup is about to start.'
The veteran is set to travel with and captain Portugal at the upcoming Qatar World Cup which starts later this month - and has previously said he hopes to play at Euro 2024.
Yuuabepy
110
he's already retired, useless in the pitch, no impact, living on past glory
Morry256
75
It's hard to be valued and respected when in 3 months under the manager... He's walked off the pitch twice, refused to show up for pre-season, refused to be subbed on and handed in a transfer request.
D10S_LM10
48
He can retire at 70 😂🤣🤣
Elijay
42
I used to mock ronaldo because of messi ronaldo rivalry, but the truth is that man united is mistreating cr7 making him look like he is not a top athlete but he should be treated like a legend just like ibra at ac milan
Unbeatableking
29
We don’t have a problem with you both . He shouldn’t retire at Manchester United. Maybe you should create a club for him where he would play till 40