Cristiano Ronaldo was encouraged to applaud Manchester United’s away fans by Diogo Dalot, following the side’s win over Everton at the weekend.
It’s probably been one of the worst starts to a season for Ronaldo in his entire career, with the 37-year-old not being Erik ten Hag’s first choice striker.
It was an all round excellent display from Ronaldo, who’d come on in the first half after Anthony Martial picked up another injury, and it might be enough to see him get a run in the team.
After the game Ronaldo was ready to head into the changing room when Dalot encouraged him to applaud the travelling supporters, who’d popped down the M62 on a Sunday night to see United win.
I love how Dalot’s always looking out for Ronaldo, this time telling him to come over to applaud the travelling away fans! pic.twitter.com/c4Jm1FGCDC
— 𝗧𝗲𝗻 𝗛𝗮𝗴’𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝗱𝘀 ✍🏼🇳🇱 (@TenHagBalI) October 11, 2022
Whilst it seems like a pretty obvious thing for the players to go over and applaud, Ronaldo has definitely fallen foul of not doing it previously.
Earlier this season United slumped to the bottom of the Premier League table after they were embarrassed 4-0 by Brentford, in the second game of the season.
The five time Ballon d’Or winner was clearly annoyed at the team’s performance at the end of the game, including his own performance, having started.
As well as ignoring the fans on that day, Ronaldo also ignored assistant manager Steve MccLaren and then refused to shake Ten Hag’s hand.
On Sunday, it did look like Ronaldo had applauded the fans briefly, before he was going to walk off, before Dalot encouraged him to join the rest of the players with a longer celebration.
The two Portugal players clearly share a good relationship, with the former Porto full back also part of an incident in pre season that caused his teammate to get in trouble.
Ronaldo was spotted leaving United’s friendly with Rayo Vallecano early, something that the club initially tried to play down as something pre agreed.
Things will continue to be a lot happier if he adds to his 700 goals however.