Cristiano Ronaldo: give Jose Mourinho a break already!

Interesting stuff from Cristiano Ronaldo today in an exclusive interview with FIFA.com.

The Real Madrid attacker doesn’t tell us whether he’s “sad” again, but he does let on that:

• He will see out his contract at Real Madrid, which runs through 2015: “I’m very clear about that. After that, well, I don’t know what’ll happen in the future.”
• The pressure at Real Madrid is greater than what he felt previously at Manchester United.
• That everyone around the Bernabeu is tightly focused on Champions League play. (Madrid’s first kick in the knockout phase, by the way, is Feb 13 in the first leg against Manchester United. What. A. Series.)
• He isn’t sure why people do not love him more.
• Every player at Madrid must decide for themselves whether to read those newspapers, to see what people might be saying about them, he says. Ronaldo does not reveal if he dwells on those articles – although he does say that he doesn’t like to “over dramatize” matters.
• He has a son now. He’s fulfilled. He likes going for walks.
• And he says people should give manager Jose Mourinho a doggone break:

People do protest and you have to respect that, though I think they should be a bit patient with him. To me it’s very clear that Mourinho always wants what’s best for the club and will fight to the death to defend it. All of us who work alongside him know that, but you’ve still got to show respect for the fans’ opinion. In my view he’s the best coach in the world, he’s got loads of experience and has won everything there is to win.”