‘Ronaldo must reinvent himself’

Cristiano Ronaldo must reinvent himself if he wants to prolong his Real Madrid career, according to Sky Sports’ Spanish football commentator Rob Palmer.

The forward, who turns 32 in February, was recently substituted for tactical reasons for the first time in his seven years at the Santiago Bernabeu in Real’s 2-2 draw at Las Palmas.

However, while Real head coach Zinedine Zidane was criticised in some quarters of the Spanish press for the move, with Ronaldo himself visibly unhappy with the decision, Palmer thinks the Frenchman made the right call.

“Ronaldo turns 32 in February and he is now at the veteran stage of his career, but the problem is he has not quite accepted that now,” Palmer told this week’s La Liga weekly podcast.

“He still thinks he is a young man and he parades himself round the field and that does not help him.

“When he gets to the point where he accepts that he is no longer the great Cristiano Ronaldo when he was 27, 28 and scoring 55 goals a season and has to slightly reinvent himself, like Lionel Messi is having to do at the moment, then he will maybe become more acceptable to the general public.

“You would have to say though that as a manager, he would be your problem in the changing room …

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