When he was still at Juventus in 2020, Cristiano Ronaldo angrily complained to Transfermarkt about his market valuation and then blocked them on social media, but time proved CR7 wrong.
The story was revealed in an interview with The Athletic, explaining they were frankly surprised by the behaviour of the superstar.
The Instagram post evidently caught his attention in March 2020, as the then-Juventus player felt affronted at being considered only the fourth most valuable Serie A figure after Inter pair Christian Eriksen, Lautaro Martinez and his Juventus teammate Paulo Dybala.
Despite explaining to CR7 that he was by far the most valuable player aged 33 and older, Transfermarkt were sent a message on social media insisting there had been some mistake.
“It was £30-50 million difference (between Ronaldo and the next player on the list), and then he sent some smilies, and then he blocked us,” revealed Christian Schwartz.
History would prove Transfermarkt right, because when Cristiano Ronaldo did leave Juventus for Manchester United some 17 months later, he did it at a cost of just €15m plus up to €8m in performance-related bonuses.
That same summer, Romelu Lukaku – who had been valued in March 2020 at the exact same market figure as CR7 – moved from Inter to Chelsea for €115m.