Manchester United Bruno Fernandes has denied that he took a subtle swipe at Cristiano Ronaldo with his comments after Erik ten Hag’s side won the Manchester derby
Bruno Fernandes has angrily hit back at claims that he dug out Cristiano Ronaldo with his comments following Manchester United’s 2-1 win over Manchester City on Saturday.
Bruno Fernandes has hit back at claims he aimed a dig at Cristiano Ronaldo after the Manchester derby ( Image: BT Sport)
United headed into the Manchester derby without the services of Ronaldo, whose second spell at Old Trafford came to an abrupt and bitter end last month. But Erik ten Hag’s side didn’t need their former talisman to claim a famous victory, which came courtesy of two goals in four second-half minutes from Fernandes and Marcus Rashford.
Fernandes was quick to praise his team-mates after the win – but some people speculated that the Portuguese midfielder had attacked his compatriot with his post-match verdict.
Speaking after the match, the jubilant United skipper said: “[We] used to be individuals, now we are a team. You can see a proper team that works for each other.”
Some people speculated that those comments were a dig at Ronaldo, whose attitude has been regularly criticised during his second spell at the club. Unsurprisingly, Fernandes reacted angrily to suggestions that he had taken aim at his former Old Trafford team-mate and decided to fire back with a response on social media.
In an Instagram story shared on Saturday night, Fernandes said: “I know that is difficult to see Manchester United doing well, [but I] don’t have anything to [say] about us on the news apart [from] good things!
“Don’t use my name to attack Cristiano. Cristiano was part of our team for half the season and as I said in many interviews, everyone since Liverpool is being amazing and acting like a proper team and you can see the results. We carry on!'”
United’s triumph in the derby means Ten Hag’s side have now beaten Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City this season. The Red Devils are now just one point behind City in third spot and in contention to mount an unexpected title challenge.
After suffering the ignominy of back-to-back defeats against Brighton and Brentford at the start of his Old Trafford tenure, Ten Hag has seen his side lose just twice in 15 games since.
But even though Manchester United have now propelled themselves back into the upper echelons of the Premier League, and the title race, Ten Hag was reluctant to entertain talk of a title challenge.
World’s richest ever tennis player is billionaire with triple Ronaldo’s net worth
Former Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo has a colossal net worth amounting to over £400million, but he still has some way to go to eclipse the world’s richest ever tennis player
Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the world’s biggest sports stars and worth over £400million (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Cristiano Ronaldo might be worth over £400million, but that doesn’t hold a candle to the colossal wealth of the world’s richest ever tennis star.
Romanian Ion Tiriac, who hung up his racket in 1979, only made around £200,000 during his tennis career. Although he won a French doubles titles in 1970 and reached the semi-final of Wimbledon, he enjoyed nowhere near the same level of fame as the likes of Rafa Nadal, Roger Federer or Serena Williams.
Following his retirement from the sport, Tiriac took up coaching and worked with the likes of Ilie Nastase and a young Boris Becker. However, it was only after he turned his attention away from tennis that he found wealth, with a string of good investments seeing him earn a fortune now believed to be around £1.2 billion.
That is according to Forbes, which claims the 83-year-old owns a car and motorcycle collection of more than 400 models, including cars previously owned by Al Capone, Sammy Davis Jr. and Elton John.
Tiriac heads the Tiriac Group, which has interests in a number of different areas, from real estate to auto, financial services and much more. Under Tiriac Holdings Ltd, he has invested in retail, insurance and airline businesses and in 2007 was named as Romania’s first billionaire.
But Ronaldo’s net worth pales in comparison to that of Ion Tiriac (left) (Image: Getty Images)
Tiriac is worth over £1billion (Image: NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Not bad going for a bloke most people have never heard of. It also means he has roughly around treble the net worth of former Juventus, Real Madrid and Manchester United man Ronaldo.
Ronaldo, who could see his net worth climb into the billions following his move to Al-Nassr, is currently valued at around £410million.
The Portuguese star has earned mega amounts of cash through lucrative contracts with the likes of United and Madrid, plus the huge sums he accumulated from brand deals with Armani, Unilever, Nike, Herbalife and DAZN.
Tiriac made his money after his tennis career came to an end (Image: Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
The veteran star was quizzed on his real net worth during an appearance on Piers Morgan’s TV show in November last year. Asked whether he has more pounds in the bank or Instagram followers, Ronaldo chuckled and replied: “It’s a good question.
“Probably similar. I don’t know. It’s good, it’s good to be still number one. Something that makes me happy too, if you see the Forbes magazine every year I’m top of the list so it’s not by coincidence too.”
Source: mirror.co.uk; dailystar.co.uk
