Roncero: Fed up with Mourinho’s conduct; Real Madrid unfair to CR7

Recently, Thomas Roncero, Real Madrid socio and editor-in-chief of AS, shared further views in an exclusive interview for the show El After de Post United. In the final segment of the interview, he admitted that he once supported José Mourinho, but the manager’s eye-poking incident against Tito Vilanova left him thoroughly disappointed, directly shifting his stance from backing to opposing Mourinho.

How do you view Mourinho’s tenure at Real Madrid? Did you support him back then? Do you think that period was beneficial for Real Madrid?

I believe the end result was positive. I’m no hypocrite and I never hide it: I was a huge supporter of Mourinho for his first two years, but by his final year, I’d grown completely fed up with him. It’s like a relationship—you can love someone deeply, then fall out of love over certain things.

I liked him in those first two years because Guardiola’s Barcelona seemed unbeatable at the time, on course to monopolize every trophy. Then Mourinho arrived, and with his unique approach and personality, he reinjected the fighting spirit that Real Madrid had arguably lost, enabling the team to go toe-to-toe with Barcelona.

I still bring up that Champions League semi-final: Dani Alves’ dramatic dive led to Pepe being sent off, and later a legitimate goal from Gonzalo Higuaín was disallowed. Even so, Real Madrid could finally compete with Barcelona. What followed was a record-breaking La Liga title with 100 points and 121 goals, playing spectacular football. So for those two years, I was a self-proclaimed Mourinhista.

I even have a theory: Guardiola left Barcelona in 2012 precisely because he’d had enough of Mourinho. He thought, “I can’t stand this man anymore. He won a record-breaking league title against me and drained me completely.”

So why did you grow tired of him in his final year?

First and foremost, the Vilanova incident—the eye poke—cut me deeply. A great club like Real Madrid does not stoop to that. Attacking someone from behind is despicable. From that moment on, I distanced myself from Mourinho.

Second, I could not abide the internal attacks. He tried to oust Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Pepe, and even Cristiano Ronaldo. Three of those four players went on to win the club’s 10th, 11th and 12th European Cups. He tried to ruin our legendary goalkeeper, to ruin Sergio Ramos—thankfully he left, otherwise the iconic 92:48 header might never have happened. He tried to ruin Pepe, the best centre-back alongside Ramos in those years. And he tried to ruin my hero, Cristiano Ronaldo.

So in my eyes, Mourinho was ultimately consumed by arrogance. Real Madrid’s ambition is not to celebrate reaching a Champions League semi-final, but to go all the way to the final and lift the trophy—just as Carlo Ancelotti, Zinedine Zidane and Vicente del Bosque did.

Let’s turn to Cristiano Ronaldo now. He is clearly a Real Madrid legend, and it’s hard to imagine the club without him. How do you feel about his departure and his apparent estrangement from Real Madrid? Why do you think the relationship didn’t end on a more perfect note—with a statue at the Santiago Bernabéu, for instance?

When it comes to love, I love him. Cristiano Ronaldo is the player who has stirred the most emotion in me since Juanito. He made me immensely proud to be a Real Madrid fan. I’ve had the privilege of knowing him personally: he is an extraordinary footballer, yet he was not treated fairly.

Ronaldo deserved to retire at Real Madrid. I’ll say it plainly. He could have worn the Real Madrid shirt at 42 or 43, scoring his 1,000th career goal. For Madridistas, having the first player in history to reach 1,000 goals at our club would have been a source of immeasurable pride.

In the midst of Messi’s golden era, Ronaldo showed us what it means to be a never-say-die fighter over nine years. With Messi at his peak, Real Madrid won four Champions Leagues in five years—Ronaldo crashed Messi’s party and took home all the most important trophies.

I agree with 95% of Florentino Pérez’s decisions, but I disagree with him on this matter. All Ronaldo asked for at the time was half of Messi’s annual salary. Given he had just won the Ballon d’Or and the Champions League that year, the demand was not unreasonable. It was a large sum, but not a fortune that would have bankrupted the club.

It broke my heart, and I admit I still haven’t gotten over losing Ronaldo—I’m like a widow of Ronaldo in that regard.

In your opinion, who is the greatest Real Madrid player you have witnessed in your lifetime?

It’s Cristiano Ronaldo. I would place Luka Modrić in a special category, though—he is exceptional both as a person and a player. Without question, Alfredo Di Stéfano is the greatest I never saw play. But among those I have watched live, I stand by Ronaldo: he is the one who left the deepest impression on me.

One final question: what is the most surreal anecdote from your career as a sports journalist? Any moment that made you gasp “wow”, or a special encounter with a player?

It has to be a story about Cristiano Ronaldo. We became friends, partly because I defended him fiercely at every turn. One day, I received a text on my phone: “Hello, it’s Cristiano. I know you’ll think this is a prank, but I assure you it’s me. I hope we can have coffee together someday—I want to thank you in person.”

I thought it was a trick, but his agent Jorge Mendes told me: “I gave him your number, stop messing around—it’s really Ronaldo.” Just like that, we struck up a connection.

Later on, Mendes told me Ronaldo wanted to meet my son. I picked a Friday, dressed my son Marcos head to toe as Ronaldo, and tricked him into thinking we were going to an exclusive fan meet. We drove to the upscale residential complex where Ronaldo lived, and my son wondered aloud: “Dad, why is this fan meet in a villa?”

Mendes opened the door, and I introduced him as the president of the fan club. Then the door opened, and Ronaldo was sitting on the stairs inside with his young son Cristianinho. I will never forget the look on my son’s face—he exclaimed, “It’s Ronaldo! It’s Ronaldo!” Ronaldo called him over in his Portuguese accent and pulled him into a hug.

We had dinner together, with my son sitting right next to Ronaldo. Ronaldo gave him advice, told him education comes first, and talked football. It was a perfect day for my son—a memory far more precious to him than any photograph.

Every time I meet Ronaldo, he reminds me that the perceived aggressive, arrogant public persona masks a man who is genuinely, incredibly kind. I’m proud to know him, and my son will never forget that day.