FORMER Barcelona defender Dani Alves has opened up on his secret love for Cristiano Ronaldo.
The two footballing giants came up against each other on numerous occasions when they playing for Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Alves and Ronaldo have since moved on, with Alves currently playing his football in Mexico for Club Universidad Nacional.
Meanwhile, despite a summer of uncertainty, Ronaldo is still at Manchester United following his Old Trafford return 12 months ago.
And Alves has admitted that he’s always respected the forward, but was never able to express his feelings due to the intensity of the Barcelona-Madrid rivalry.
He said on a podcast: “I love Cristiano. Now that we are no longer at Barca and Madrid I can speak, because it always seemed like I couldn’t.
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“Cristiano exemplifies, for all of us who don’t have that much quality, that with hard work you can also compete against the best.
“I respect him a lot and I had the opportunity to tell him.
“There came a time because of the rivalry that I went up to greet him and he didn’t greet me.
“There was a controversy that never came out, but in the Ballon d’Or dressing room we had a ‘scuffle’.
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“I greeted everyone and he didn’t greet me because of what Barca-Madrid was generating outside.”
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“I identify with him, because everything I did in my life was based on that.”
Alves then made a surprise claim by stating that he’s more like Ronaldo than former teammate Lionel Messi.
He added: “If you made a comparison, as a player, I am closer to Cristiano than to Leo because of the work, not because of the talent, because Leo is a born talent, who was born with the talent to play football and to be in another world that only he achieves.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
