Ligue 1 hit back following Cristiano Ronaldo’s French football jibe

Not for the first time, Cristiano Ronaldo (39) took a swing at French football earlier this month. “[The] Saudi League is better than Ligue 1, of course. France only has Paris Saint-Germain. The rest are finished,” said the Portugal international at the most recent edition of the Globe Soccer Awards. 

He made a similar remark at the 14th edition of the event just a year ago. On that occasion, now-former Lille OSC manager Paulo Fonseca hit out at those remarks, pointing out that Ronaldo had never played in Ligue 1. This time around, Ronaldo’s comments have drawn a response from an official Ligue 1 account.

Defending the Saudi Pro League, Ronaldo added, “Players should come and play here, try to spring in 38, 39, 40 degrees, sweat. Come and play here and you will see.”

The Ligue 1 Spain account on X (formerly Twitter) posted  a picture of former Paris Saint-Germain forward Lionel Messi captioned: “Leo Messi playing in 38 degrees”. 

The caption was accompanied by a picture of Messi with the World Cup trophy, with the post a reference to when the forward won the FIFA World Cup with Argentina in Qatar in 2022, ultimately beating France in the final on penalties.

GFFN | Luke Entwistle