A small group of Real Madrid fans protested at the club’s Valdebebas training facility on Monday morning following the much-publicised Cristiano Ronaldo’s 30th birthday party just hours after Saturday’s derby rout by Atletico Madrid.
Images of the Portuguese superstar and team-mates including James Rodriguez, Marcelo and Keylor Navas enjoying a good time out hours after their 4-0 defeat by neighbours Atletico prompted angry reaction from Real fans on social media.
AS reports that Los Blancos’ followers took their anger to the Valdebebas training ground, hoisting a banner with the message: “Your laughter, our shame.”
Real are without a win in six meetings with their city rivals Atletico this season having lost four and drawn two of those matches. Barcelona’s victory over Athletic Bilbao on Sunday trimmed their lead to just one point.
Real president Fiorentino Perez, who was reportedly furious after the images, was first at the training ground, though has not been proven if he had visited to talk to the players about the Ronaldo party.
In the meantime, Ronaldo’s agent, Jorge Mendes, has defended the reigning world footballer of the year, saying: “Cristiano was very angry about the defeat but wanted to respect the people.”
“Cristiano is still the best professional in the world, the best ever,” Mendes told El Larguero on Sunday. “He told me ‘I’m not going to stay for very long,’ but he had more than 40 children at the party and had to go. Cristiano didn’t want to have the party on the 5th (Thursday, the actual day of his birthday) because he couldn’t. He wanted to respect the people who had come. It was also his niece’s birthday.”
