“Change it”: Cristiano Ronaldo explodes with Piero Maza performance and makes striking request

In football nomenclature, there are few gestures as obvious as the one made to request a substitution. With the two indices, The person directly involved or one of their teammates, if they notice an irreversible injury, goes to the substitutes’ bench so that the technical staff can make the aforementioned modification. .

However, we rarely see that the gesture is made for another purpose. And even less if the recipient of the request is none other than the match judge. . This picture, striking in itself, is completed by other information, in this case: the referee was the Chilean Piero Maza and the person who requested his departure was none other than Cristiano Ronaldo.

Maza traveled to Saudi Arabia to officiate the match between Al Nassr, the team defended by the Portuguese, and Al Nassr and Al Errifaq, for the King’s Cup. The disagreements started very early. In the 12th minute, there was already friction because of a play that the European considered a foul, but the referee didn’t think so. CR7 used his speed to take on Maza .

Cristiano put all his theatricality into practice. Through gestures, he rejected the actions of the Chilean who chose to apply the regulations. The report will almost certainly contain a reprimand for gestured disapproval of a referendum decision. .

That’s not all: at the end of the first half, he disallowed an Al Nassr goal for offside and also sent off Anderson Tallisca, the Portuguese’s teammate, for hitting an opponent. All these antecedents only increased the anger of the megastar of world football towards the national referee.

The corollary of all the disagreements occurred in the 56th minute, when, already tired of the performance of the national referee, the former figure of Real Madrid, Manchester United and Juventus approached the edge of the field to speak to the fourth official. . The visit was not only used to discuss with the administrative judge. Taking advantage of the proximity of the television cameras, CR7 made a gesture which will surely remain marked as one of the greatest affronts that Maza has suffered in his career: He asked that he be changed in the sight and patience of all . Everyone, in this case, includes the millions of people who were watching the meeting on television.

This gesture, in any case, could perfectly have meant another yellow card and therefore an expulsion. As no one had warned, Maza could not take revenge with the power offered by the regulations. .

How did the match end? Al Nassr won 1-0, thanks to a goal from Sadio Mané. Few people cared.