Football
ESPN staff 7y

Brazil icon Ronaldo left Real Madrid due to weight row with Fabio Capello

Brazil legend Ronaldo says he would have stayed longer than five years at Real Madrid if not for arguments with Fabio Capello about his weight.

The two-time World Cup winner scored 83 league goals in 127 games at the Spanish giants between 2002 and 2007 before moving to AC Milan.

"I didn't want to leave. I started to have a lot of problems with Capello. If I was 100 grams overweight, he would take me out of the team," Ronaldo told Fox Sports.

"I am tolerant, I want to understand other points of view. But with him, I just couldn't."

Ronaldo won two La Liga titles during his time in Madrid, but departed midway through the 2006-07 season when arguments with Cappello about his weight rose to the surface.

"I understand his position as the manager, but sometimes in football, 100 or 200 grams doesn't make the difference," he said.

"It's about what you actually do, and he didn't see what I actually did, what I could contribute, as the be all and end all."

Ronaldo, who was the Ballon d'Or winner in 1997 and 2002, believes that his namesake Cristiano Ronaldo deserves the 2017 prize ahead of Barcelona's Lionel Messi.

"Both of them are fantastic. I love Messi with the ball at his feet, he scores goals and does all the rest too," he said.

"But Cristiano's numbers can't be ignored. For the last two years, he has been decisive.

"He was key in so many matches in the Champions League... he's in the final."

Real Madrid will face Juventus in Saturday's final in Cardiff, hoping to become the first club in the Champions League-era to win back-to-back titles.

Ronaldo, 40, never won the Champions League, but lifted the Cup Winners' Cup (with Barcelona in 1997) and the UEFA Cup (with Inter Milan in 1998).

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