Cristiano Ronaldo’s €200m-per-year transfer to Al Nassr, where he is set to become the highest earner in the history of football, has grabbed all the headlines as he was unveiled as their new player in a glitzy ceremony on Tuesday. The Portuguese forward will now link up with former Lyon and Roma coach Rudi Garcia at Al Nassr, who joined as the head coach of the Saudi side in June last year. With Ronaldo yet to make his debut for his new side, he already has being warned against Garcia by his former associate at Lyon, Juninho Pernambucano.
Juninho and Garcia worked together at Lyon for two years between 2019 to 2021. Garcia was Juninho’s second appointment as Lyon manager after taking over as their Director of football in 2019. Apart from the director role, Juninho is hailed as Lyon’s living legend who made 248 appearances for the club between 2001 to 2009, scoring a remarkable 75 goals, including some mesmerising strikes.
‘Garcia will serve Cristiano Ronaldo breakfast if he has to! – Juninho on Al Nassr boss
Garcia had a decent stint in Europe before moving to Al Nassr in June 2022. The manager had coached some important teams before leaving Europe in Lyon, Roma, Marseille, Lille amongst others. Of all the spells in the continent, Garcia enjoyed relatively successful stay Lille from 2008 to 2013, leading them to a double of Ligue 1 and French Cup during the 2010/11 season.
However, his Lyon stint too was a significant one, where he steered the French side to the semifinals of the Champions League 19/20 season, beating Cristiano Ronaldo led Juventus in the Round of 16, and the mighty Manchester City in the quarterfinals. But Juninho, who was the club’s director of football at that time as slammed Garcia as the ‘biggest bad character in football’. Juninho told MaisFutebol:
“He [Rudi Garcia] won’t dare do anything that gets in the way, on the contrary, he’ll even serve breakfast for Cristiano if he has to. He will try to be Cristiano’s friend, be close and he will do everything for that. It will be a dream for him to be friends with Cristiano Ronaldo.
“My experience with Rudi Garcia was terrible. He’s the biggest bad character I’ve met in my entire career in football. He doesn’t know how to lead anything. He leads by the fear he imposes on others. He only respects people who have power or who he can take advantage of in the relationship.
“For Rudi Garcia, the success of the team and the atmosphere in the locker room don’t matter. What matters is that he is the centre of attention, even if it is in crises. But like all highly cold human beings, he recognises those greater than him and tries to take advantage of it. Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the greatest in the history of football, a legend, and Rudi knows it.”
Cristiano Ronaldo will certainly pay heed to Juninho’s warning, given he has had clashed with the previous three managers he has worked with. The five-time Ballon d’Or winner first found himself at crossroads with former club Manchester United’s interim boss Ralf Rangnick, then his successor Erik ten Hag and most recently the Portugal head coach Fernando Santos during the World Cup, leading to his resignation.