Cristiano Ronaldo: Manchester United forward must face consequences, says Erik ten Hag

 

Ronaldo refused to come on as substitute - Ten Hag

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has said there "has to be consequences" after confirming Cristiano Ronaldo refused to come on as a substitute against Tottenham on Wednesday.

Ronaldo, 37, left Old Trafford before full-time after leaving the bench and walking down the tunnel in the 89th minute of United's 2-0 win.

He has been dropped for Saturday's game at Chelsea and is training alone.

Asked directly whether Ronaldo refused to come on, Ten Hag said: "Yes."

He added that after the Portugal international did the same at half-time of the friendly against Rayo Vallecano in pre-season, he felt he had to act.

"The talk is between Cristiano and me. The statement is clear. It is also in the statement that he remains an important part of the squad," Ten Hag said.

"I am the manager, I am responsible for the culture here. I have to set standards and values and have to control them. We are in a team.

"After Rayo Vallecano, I said it was unacceptable, but it wasn't just him. The second time there has to be consequences. That is what has happened.

"We miss him tomorrow, that is a miss for us and the squad, but I think it is important for the attitude and mentality of the group and now we have to focus on Chelsea - that is the most important."

Cristiano Ronaldo's behaviour 'unacceptable' - Micah Richards

Ronaldo's actions have been widely criticised, with Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker calling them "unacceptable" while former United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel said this was the first time he had been "disappointed" in the player.

On Thursday, Ronaldo said "the heat of the moment" had got to him, though he stopped short of apologising.

He has scored just one goal in eight Premier League appearances this season, and also showed his displeasure at being substituted in Sunday's 0-0 home draw with Newcastle.

United go into Saturday's game at Stamford Bridge just one point behind Chelsea in fifth and Ten Hag said his players would not be distracted by this week's drama.

"It's part of playing in top football," he said.

"There are rumours and noise and you can't get distracted, you have to remain on the job and get the result."

Analysis

Erik ten Hag couldn't have done any better.

He addressed the major issue around Cristiano Ronaldo directly, then explained why he felt it was important to take the action he did.

Then, once the broadcast media had finished, he answered more questions from the written press, which will appear in Saturday's newspapers.

It was not the first major test of Ten Hag's authority. But it was the biggest - and he has come through it with his status enhanced and Ronaldo's diminished. If there is a winner in such situations, Ten Hag is it.

The other point worth nothing is when he first took the United job, Ten Hag's English was hesitant. Now he can communicate with the media effectively - and forcefully.

With United beating Tottenham as well, it has been a good 48 hours for the Dutchman.

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Ballon d'Or: Karim Benzema wins award as best player in world football for first time

 

Real Madrid and France forward Karim Benzema has won the Ballon d'Or - awarded to the best footballer of the year - for the first time.

Benzema scored 44 goals in 46 games as he helped Real win the Champions League and La Liga in 2021-22.

Lionel Messi (seven) and Cristiano Ronaldo (five) had won the award on 12 of the previous 13 occasions.

Bayern Munich's Sadio Mane, who was at Liverpool in 2021-22, was second ahead of Manchester City's Kevin de Bruyne.

Barcelona's Alexia Putellas retained the Women's Ballon d'Or, awarded to the best best female footballer of 2022.

England Euro 2022 winner and Arsenal forward Beth Mead was second.

Premier League champions Manchester City, who had six nominees at the ceremony, were awarded Club of the Year ahead of Liverpool.

The Ballon d'Or is awarded to the best footballer of the year, based on performance over the 2021-22 season.

Zinedine Zidane (right) was the last Frenchman to win the Ballon d'Or First Frenchman to win prize since 1998

Monday's ceremony in Paris saw French F1 driver Esteban Ocon arrive at the Theatre du Chatelet with the Ballon d'Or trophy in a racing car.

Benzema is the first Frenchman to win the prestigious award since Zinedine Zidane in 1998. Zidane was at the event to present his countryman with the prize.

"This prize in front of me makes me really proud," said Benzema. "When I was small, it was a childhood dream, I never gave up. Anything is possible.

"I'm really proud of my journey here. It wasn't easy, it was a difficult time for my family as well."

Benzema was the overwhelming favourite to win this year's award.

His 44 goals included a hat-trick in 17 second-half minutes against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, and another away to Chelsea in the quarter-final first leg.

He also scored three more goals over two legs of the semi-final against Manchester City.

The 34-year-old, who has been at Real Madrid since 2009, is expected to play a key role for France at the World Cup in Qatar which starts on 20 November.

The Ballon d'Or is voted for by 100 journalists from around the world.

Warm reception for Haller

Borussia Dortmund's former West Ham striker Sebastien Haller, who has recently undergone chemotherapy for a testicular tumour, received warm applause from the audience when he walked on stage to present the Yashin Trophy to Real Madrid's Thibaut Courtois for best goalkeeper.

Liverpool's Alisson was second, with Ederson of Manchester City and Chelsea's Edouard Mendy third and fourth respectively. Tottenham's Hugo Lloris was 10th.

The Kopa Trophy, awarded to the best performing player under the age of 21, went to Barcelona and Spain midfielder Gavi, who turned 18 in August.

Sebastien Haller on stage at the Ballon d'Or awards ceremony

Borussia Dortmund midfielder Jude Bellingham, 19, was ranked fourth and England team-mate and Arsenal forward Bukayo Saka, 21, was eighth.

Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski won the Gerd Muller Trophy awarded to the best striker after scoring 57 goals for Bayern Munich and Poland in 2021-22.

The inaugural Socrates Award, a humanitarian prize, went to Mane for his charity work.

Five-time winner Ronaldo ranked 20th

Messi and Ronaldo have dominated the award in recent years, apart from in 2018 when Croatia midfielder Luka Modric won it.

Messi had already won the trophy more times than any other player and his seventh success in 2021 came after wins in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2019.

However, he was not nominated this time after an underwhelming first season at Paris St-Germain.

Manchester United's Ronaldo, who last won it in 2017, was placed 20th of the 30 players nominated, the Portuguese's lowest Ballon d'Or ranking since 2005.

Ballon d'Or results

1. Karim Benzema (Real Madrid, France).

2. Sadio Mane (Bayern Munich, Senegal).

3. Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City, Belgium).

4. Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona, Poland).

5. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool, Egypt).

6. Kylian Mbappe (Paris St-Germain, France).

7. Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid, Belgium).

8. Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid, Brazil).

9. Luka Modric (Real Madrid, Croatia).

10. Erling Haaland (Manchester City, Norway).

11. Son Heung-min (Tottenham Hotspur, South Korea)

12. Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City, Algeria).

13. Sebastien Haller (Borussia Dortmund, Ivory Coast).

14. Fabinho (Liverpool, Brazil) tied with Rafael Leao (AC Milan, Portugal).

16. Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool, Netherlands).

17. Luis Diaz (Liverpool, Colombia) tied with Dusan Vlahovic (Juventus, Serbia) and Casemiro (Manchester United, Brazil).

20. Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United, Portugal).

21. Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur, England).

22. Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool, England) tied with Phil Foden (Manchester City, England) and Bernardo Silva (Manchester City, Portugal).

25. Joao Cancelo (Manchester City, Portugal) tied with Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich, Germany), Mike Maignan (AC Milan, France), Antonio Rudiger (Real Madrid, Germany), Darwin Nunez (Liverpool, Uruguay) and Christopher Nkunku (RB Leipzig, France).

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Liverpool jolt Man City as Arsenal go four points clear

Salah goal gives Liverpool victory over City

Arsenal survive Leeds onslaught to win 1-0 away

Man United held to goalless draw by Newcastle

Oct 16 (Reuters) - Liverpool ignited their Premier League season as Mohamed Salah's late goal earned them a stormy 1-0 win over Manchester City to leave Arsenal four points clear at the top on Sunday.

Salah, fresh from his quickfire hat-trick in midweek against Rangers in the Champions League, latched onto a long clearance by goalkeeper Allison in the 76th minute and fired into the net to inflict a first defeat of the season on champions City.

City, who could have gone 16 points clear of their hosts with a win, had a Phil Foden goal disallowed, while Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp was shown a red card for remonstrating with a linesman after a tackle on Salah.

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Arsenal made it nine wins from their first 10 games with Bukayo Saka's goal earning them a 1-0 victory at Leeds United.

Mikel Arteta's side have 27 points from 10 games with City and Tottenham Hotspur on 23. Chelsea are in fourth spot with 19 points, with a game in hand, thanks to a 2-0 win at Aston Villa courtesy of a double by England midfielder Mason Mount.

Manchester United are fifth with 16 points from nine games after drawing 0-0 at home to sixth-placed Newcastle United, who have 15.

Despite Arsenal's flying start to the season the popular theory is that relentless City are primed to claim a fifth title in six seasons.

But on a rare off day for City's goal machine Erling Haaland, Liverpool produced a performance that suggests it is far too early to disregard Juergen Klopp's side, who have 13 points from nine games after a rocky start.

CLASSIC MATCHES

Clashes between the sides have produced some classics over the past few seasons and while Sunday's match had plenty of the usual quality, it was a blood and thunder affair that occasionally boiled over.

Guardiola was furious when Foden's goal, with the score at 0-0, was ruled out after referee Anthony Taylor checked a pitch-side monitor and decided there had been a foul by Haaland on Fabinho in the build-up.

Salah had been denied by a great save from Ederson but when he found himself one-on-one again he made no mistake. Alisson's quarterback-style clearance was missed by Joao Cancelo and the Egyptian forward ran through to dink a shot over City's keeper.

With tackles flying in Klopp was livid when Salah was not given a foul and he was sent from the technical area.

Klopp was calmer later, admitting that he had probably deserved a red card.

On the result, the German said: "Perfect. Performance, really, really good, in an incredibly intense game.

"We defended at an incredibly high level for 99 minutes almost. They had their moments but especially in the box we did extremely well. This was for us obviously big today. We showed up today and that is all we wanted to do."

The defeat was City's first in 23 away games in the Premier League and Guardiola was left bemused by the decision to disallow Foden's goal.

"The referee said play on, play on, there were a thousand million fouls like this and this one they gave because we scored a goal," Guardiola, who said coins were thrown at him, complained.

"We lost because we make a mistake but this is Anfield."

LENGTHY DELAY

Arsenal's game earlier had suffered a lengthy delay after a power outage at Elland Road.

But they returned after 38 minutes to take the points in a frantic game thanks to Saka's first-half goal from a tight angle following a through pass by Martin Odegaard.

Patrick Bamford missed a penalty for Leeds who suffered their first home loss of the season.

"Big momentum for us, we've won another game. We need to keep this going and today we showed we can win no matter what," Saka said.

Chelsea remain unbeaten in six games since Graham Potter became manager, winning the last five in succession in all competitions.

They were given a helping hand as Villa's Tyrone Mings made a terrible mistake to allow Mount to score in the sixth minute. Mount then sealed the points with a second-half free kick.

In Sunday's other match, Declan Rice's earned West Ham United a point with the equaliser in a 1-1 draw at Southampton who remain in the relegation zone.

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Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Ken Ferris

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. 

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Give Cristiano Ronaldo ‘right punishment’ for phone slap, mother of autistic boy urges FA

Ronaldo has been charged with improper conduct (Getty Images)

The mother of an autistic boy whose phone was slapped out of his hand by Cristiano Ronaldo has asked how the football star sleeps at night after the incident.

Sarah Kelly said the footballer should not be allowed to “get away with it” and has urged the FA to give Ronaldo the “right punishment” after the footballing body announced the player would be charged for his part in the exchange.

Video footage showed Ronaldo appearing to knock 14-year-old Jacob Kelly’s mobile phone to the ground after Manchester United’s 1-0 defeat at Goodison Park, for which the Portuguese player was cautioned by Merseyside Police.

The footballer was charged with “improper and/or violent” conduct by the FA and could face punishment if found guilty following the investigation.

“Cristiano Ronaldo has been charged with a breach of FA Rule E3 for an incident that took place after Manchester United FC’s Premier League match against Everton on Saturday, 9 April 2022,” the FA said in a statement.

“It is alleged that the forward’s conduct after the final whistle was improper and/or violent.”

Ms Kelly, 37, told the Daily Mirror: “Let's hope he finally gets the right punishment. He can't keep getting away with it. His behaviour is unacceptable.”

Ms Kelly said the FA's action had sparked a fresh wave of abuse against her and her son after they endured “six months of hell” from Ronaldo fans.

She added: “I'm being hounded by people saying I'm dragging it up again but I didn't know anything about it.

“He should have been dealt with six months ago. My son talks about what happened to him every day. He still hasn't had his phone back.”

Ms Kelly, who said police told her Ronaldo paid a £200 fine, claimed she and Jacob had not received a sincere apology from the player. She added: “He offered us to meet him and said he was sorry but said he had done nothing wrong. That's not an apology, that's an insult.”

Merseyside Police said they wanted to fix Jacob's phone before giving it back. A spokesman added: “The phone was kept until the conclusion of the investigation and will be returned shortly.”

Story continues

In response to the charge against Ronaldo, who has started just once under Erik Ten Hag in the Premier League this season, United said in a statement: “We will be supporting the player.”

“It’s never easy to deal with emotions in difficult moments such as the one we are facing,” Ronaldo said following the incident in April. “Nevertheless, we always have to be respectful, patient and set the example for all the youngsters who love the beautiful game.

“I would like to apologise for my outburst and, if possible, I would like to invite this supporter to watch a game at Old Trafford as a sign of fair-play and sportsmanship.”

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