Del Piero has jumped in defense of Cristiano Ronaldo, following recent criticism that the Juventus star has suffered.
It’s been a tough past few weeks for Cristiano Ronaldo, with some results not going his way of late.
Most of the criticism heightened after Juventus’ shock exit in the Champions League at the hands of Porto. In fact, some sections even blamed CR7 specifically for that loss, considering the role he played in the defeat.
It continues the debate as to whether Ronaldo has actually improved Juventus or if they needed him in the first place.
Weighing on the matter, Juve legend Del Piero doesn’t see CR7 as the problem and believes Juve need to build a team for him.
Speaking to ESPN, he said: “You can’t see Cristiano Ronaldo as a problem,” the former captain continued. “You embraced him three years ago, so you go with him.”
“He’s one of the best players in the world, with [Lionel] Messi. And now there are a couple of others that are doing quite well. [Kylian] Mbappé and [Erling Braut] Haaland, for example, or Neymar.”
“But he’s a great guy, he’s a guy that scores every game. That’s why they brought Ronaldo, for him to score every game and bring them the Champions League.”
“Unfortunately, the Champions League is the situation where Juve are the worst actually. They exited the quarter-finals once and the round of 16 in the other two. So they are very poor results.”
“But you need to build a team for him, and that’s one of the keys. Juve have been winning for nine years in a row. It’s also about keeping that level of concentration and energy on top, which is very tough.”
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