From father and son to strangers: Cristiano Ronaldo and Mendes' grudge

"According to Portuguese magazine Flash, after more than two decades of professional and personal contacts, Mendes no longer wants to have anything to do with Cristiano Ronaldo."

Mendes is like Ronaldo's second father, always giving advice to Ronaldo in moments of suffering, the story of the two of them should have been a legendary story of mutual achievement, but unfortunately the ending was not good...

The two fledgling Portuguese hit it off

In 1996, Jorge Mendes began his legendary career as an agent – before that he was a video store owner and a player retired from the lower leagues. The deal to send Guimaraes' backup goalkeeper Nuno to A Coruña made him a small name in the industry.

Mendes' life changed drastically in 2002 when a friend introduced Cristiano Ronaldo, who was under 17 and still playing for Sporting Portugal. At that time, Ronaldo's agent was José Vega, and in those days, the Portuguese monopolized the vast majority of stars in the country.

After just one meal, Mendes successfully persuaded Ronaldo's mother, Dolores, and recruited Ronaldo to his command.

Ronaldo said in an early interview: "I met Mendes when I was very young and one day we went out for a meal together. Mendes didn't sign up the first time we met, just chatted with me normally. He gave me a lot of advice that day, such as that the people who worked for me weren't doing well. ”

Ronaldo's mother, Dolores, was always full of praise for Mendes: "Ever since I knew Mendes, I felt that he would be someone who would be of great help to my son. Getting to know him was crucial for my family. In those most difficult moments, he always showed us and never refused to help us. ”

"Our family never had the opportunity to express their gratitude to him. Jorge Mendes is an incredibly nice guy and you can talk to him whenever you need to. Our gratitude is too small, and I hope God will bless him. Mendes will always be in my heart. "

Cascais's convention

Before telling how Sir Alex Ferguson and Mendes decided the future of Cristiano Ronaldo, let's take a look at what happened a few years ago.

Queiroz was at Manchester United in 2002. The Reds needed a goalkeeper at the time and Mendes recommended Lopez like they did. Mendes was in a serious car accident on the way to the airport and lost a piece of meat in his left ear, but he was unwilling to give up the opportunity to meet Ferguson, and after a simple bandage, he flew to England.

Mendes and ambulance crews said: "Even if my brain is broken, I will not miss this meeting, I should go." It was also this meeting that made a deep impression on Sir Alex Ferguson.

In the summer of 2003, Sporting Lisbon played a friendly match with Manchester United to celebrate the completion of its new stadium, Jose Venwallade. Manchester United had just finished a long trip to the United States, and Cristiano Ronaldo overshadowed all the other players in this game.

Freita later recalled the moment from a luxury hotel in Lisbon: "The match against Manchester United was to celebrate the completion of our new stadium, on the left, on the right... I still remember Cristiano Ronaldo on the left flank finishing Phil Neville! "Ronaldo's performance shocked the Red Devils' players and they started to go crazy around the old lord in the dressing room to sign him this summer.

Ahead of the match, Mendes and Sir Alex Ferguson had an undocumented private meeting at the hotel in Cascais.

"Manchester United were the only team that wanted Cristiano Ronaldo from the start and they bet right. Ferguson has his own reason, he can guarantee that Ronaldo will play at least 50% of the game. Mendes said.

On that day in Cascais, all the words of Mendes and Sir Ferguson have been fulfilled thereafter. When Mendes told Ronaldo that he could go to Manchester United, Ronaldo took a deep breath: "Well, this is my dream team, let's go!" ”

Everyone knows that Mendes and Ronaldo's direct relationship is more than just a professional relationship. Ronaldo revealed in his biography: "I think Jorge is the most loyal person I know in the football world, he is not just a football agent, but a friend, a father, my family. ”

Ronaldo's transformation is not only the careful teaching of Lord Fergus, but also the full support of Mendes. Especially after Ronaldo lost his father, he took great care of his family and mother, helping the Portuguese genius through the most difficult moments of his life.

Ferguson said: "After getting to know Jorge Mendes for many years, I have to say that he is a leader in the industry. I first spoke to him when Manchester United signed Cristiano Ronaldo. What impressed me the most was that he was not at all moved by financial interests, and did not even say a word about money. On the contrary, what he is most concerned about is how we take care of and develop Ronaldo, and whether Ronaldo has the opportunity to play in the league. He is also worried about the player's family problems, saying that his mother is very important for Cristiano Ronaldo. That's enough to set him apart from most agents. ”

Manchester to Madrid

A few years later, Manchester United lost to Barca in the Champions League final, Mendes realised that it could no longer bring Cristiano Ronaldo a boost, and under his control, Real Madrid spent a record £80 million to sign Ronaldo.

The arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo was a long and complicated process, and after all the dust settled, Real Madrid presented Mendes with a shirt with "Imposible" printed on the back. As Mendes said: nothing is impossible.

At Real Madrid, Ronaldo ushered in the most brilliant stage of his career, winning the Ballon d'Or four times, lifting the Champions League trophy three times in a row, and his story with Mendes is constantly being unearthed, and everyone believes that it is a good story of the two Portuguese achieving each other in football.

After his success, Ronaldo also wrote the foreword to Mendes' biography, calling it "my father of football."

Ronaldo wrote: "I met Jorge Mendes at the beginning of my career. With his courage, integrity and professionalism, he lifted me from an unknown junior to the height I am today. Mendes does what he says, and that's why he became a cornerstone of my life and the most important part of what made me so successful. He is like my family and I am grateful to him from the bottom of my heart that no one has helped me more in football than he did. ”

"For me, Mendes is also a brother and father, and our relationship is as close as family. At home, we can joke unscrupulously, swim in the pool together ... It's not uncommon for him to be my football agent, but my friend, and we share our families. In other words, our relationship is extraordinary. ”

The reason for the quarrel surfaced, and the two parted ways

Mendes' last transfer for Cristiano Ronaldo was to join Manchester United from Juventus, and I believe that without Mendes, Manchester United would not have signed Cristiano Ronaldo. After releasing the smoke bomb of Ronaldo joining Manchester City, Mendes and Manchester United began negotiations, and asked Ferguson to go out again as a lobbyist, and insisted on "repairing the plank road and darkening the warehouse" to let Ronaldo return to Old Trafford.

The absence from pre-season training last year, as well as his attacks on United's behaviour in an interview with Morgan, have been persuaded by Mendes, an agent. "Le Monde" revealed that Mendes did not want to miss Ronaldo from training from the beginning, nor did he want him to be interviewed by Morgan, but he failed to convince Ronaldo.

Mendes has been campaigning for Ronaldo because he knows that there will be no club other than Manchester United to offer Cristiano Ronaldo, even if the weekly salary is reduced to 80,000 pounds, and his attempts at Atletico, Chelsea and Bayern have failed.

But Ronaldo has been frustrated that Mendes has not found a Champions League club to join. In such circumstances, Mendes has advised Ronaldo to stay at Manchester United and help the team when needed, and if the team has a good record, Ronaldo can even get a contract extension from Manchester United.

However, Mendes' persuasion failed again, and with the help of his friend Reguf, Ronaldo negotiated with Riyadh Victory, and Ronaldo's direct skipping of Mendes' negotiations this time also surprised many fans.

Ronaldo blamed his agent for his mistake, which made Mendes quite angry, and the incident was another harbinger of the breakdown of the relationship between the two. After this, Mendes and Ronaldo made a deeper cut, he cut off contact with Ronaldo at the sports level, and also gave up his portrait rights, and the two gradually became strangers.

Mendes and Cristiano Ronaldo have been working together for 20 years, they are godfathers to each other's children and they are two people who changed the history of Portuguese football. And with the end of business relationships and the breakdown of personal relationships, the distance between the two will only grow.

(Push-ups/Leicester City's Little Fox)