Cristiano Ronaldo should realise his age, says Eric Cantona

Manchester United legend Eric Cantona has claimed that Cristiano Ronaldo failed to realise that he was growing old and that he could not play every game that he once could. This has been labelled as a big factor behind Ronaldo falling out with Manchester United in his second spell with the club.

At 37 years of age, Ronaldo is coming towards the end of his career and he has recently made a switch to Saudi Arabian football – even if it is worth around £ 175 million per season. Ronaldo was not happy with the game time which he was receiving at United under Erik ten Hag.

Defending the decisions made by Erik ten Hag, Eric Cantona claimed that it was about time that Ronaldo realised that he could not play every game considering his age. Cantona has recalled his own situation where he decided to quit early after seeing that his level had dropped over the last four years of his career. However, Cantona has justified Ronaldo’s decision to be playing towards the 40s, as many players like Ryan Giggs took the same path. However, these players were able to sacrifice the game time in order to become a mentor for the many young players at the club. Ronaldo, however, still wanted to be the main man at United.

"You have to accept [growing older] in everything we do, not only in football.I cannot run as fast as when I was 30 years old, I have to accept it. I have to accept I will die someday.It's difficult to accept it but we have to. And the end of a career is like dying. It's a little death.I think you have two kinds of players at the end of their career. Me, I decided to retire young, that's another thing,” said Cantona.