Vincent Aboubakar had to leave the Riyadh club after Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to Al-Nassr.
In January, center forward Besiktas joined Istanbul. The city on the Bosphorus is not unfamiliar territory for the 30-year-old, he has already switched to the “Black Eagles” twice before. In Turkey, Aboubakar was on target with 35 goals in 71 games.
When Cristiano Ronaldo switched to Al-Nassr, the Cameroonian didn’t like it at first. Back then, the striker taunted Ronaldo, calling his main rival Lionel Messi the “better player”.
Aboubakar: “I was a little annoyed”
But now the hatchet between Aboubakar and Ronaldo seems to be buried, although the Cameroonian had to look far away. As the 30-year-old revealed on Canal+’s “Talents d’Afrique” show, the Portuguese tried everything possible to keep his ex-team-mate at the club.
Before leaving, the two spoke to each other again: “His (Cristiano’s) opinion was that he wanted me to stay, but I told him that I was going for family reasons,” Aboubakar said of the conversation.
“If your family is very far away, it’s the best solution,” was Ronaldo’s response to the Cameroonian’s motivations. Although Aboubakar and Ronaldo eventually reconciled, the Cameroonian admitted he was “angry” at first.
“I was a little annoyed because it wasn’t easy. When Cristiano came, coach Rudi Garcia called me to his office and told me that a foreign player had to go: either me or Jaloliddin Masharipov,” said the Cameroonian.
