Spoiler

Ping pong wizard Cristiano Ronaldo could have gone pro

CR9 was a regular Forrest Gump…

Cristiano Ronaldo claims he was advised to quit football for his other childhood obsession, ping pong. In his upcoming autobiography, Momentos (we’re sure you can’t wait), the Portuguese man-o-sex reveals he could have just as easily been winking across a table instead of a football pitch:

After football, ping pong is my favorite sport. I love to watch professional games and I like to play. I started playing as a boy in my neighborhood and at school. When I moved to the school of Sporting [CP], I kept playing ping pong.

The Spoiler hopes this isn’t a direct quote from the book, because it reads like a four-year-old’s back-to-school recount of what they did over summer. Anyway:

One day the coach of the Sporting table tennis said, “I’ve seen you play and I think you can become a good table tennis player. Want to get in the team?”. “No, no thanks”, I replied without hesitation. “I want to be a footballer. Ping pong is a hobby, not a sport in which you want to be professional

Which probably comes as a kick in the teeth to all the professional table tennis players out there. Make no bones about it though, had CR9 gone down the paddle route, he would’ve been as internationally-renowned and instantly recognisable as Wang Hao:

I play with the right, left… Without being boastful, I think I do pretty well. Even those who think they have a chance against me give up when faced with the facts.

Such a modest kid.

• Cristiano Ronaldo
• Real Madrid
• Sporting CP
• Table Tennis