Sporting wanted to kick Semedo out, but Ronaldo who was the golden
boy of the youth set-up threatened to leave if his friend leaves
Jose Semedo (right) and Cristiano Ronaldo are childhood friends from their days at Sporting Lisbon (Twitter/ Jose Semedo)
Sheffield Wednesday player Jose Semedo has revealed he owes his career to his friend and Real Madrid star, Cristiano Ronaldo.
Semedo and Ronaldo are childhood friends and started their career at Sporting Lisbon.
The pair were roommates during their days at Sporting Lisbon and Ronaldo stepped in to help his friend when he was nearly thrown out of the academy.
Jose Semedo says he owes his career to Cristiano Ronaldo (Twitter/ Jose Semedo)
Sporting wanted to
kick Semedo out, Ronaldo, who was the golden boy of the youth set-up
threatened to leave if his friend leaves.
“I owe everything I have to him,” Semedo told Daily Mail.
“The
place I am from in Setubal is not a good place for a young man. A lot
of my friends from there were involved in crime. Some of them are dead
now, or in jail. If I had gone back, maybe I would have stolen cars with
them. He changed my life. My family, my children, my career: it is all
because of him.”
Semedo also revealed that Ronaldo was heavily bullied at the academy because of his thick Madeira accent.
Ronaldo was so frustrated about the bullying that he once threw a chair at a teacher who failed to stop the mocking.
Jose Semedo during his Manchester United days (Newcastle United via Getty Images)
“He was the best,
he controlled the ball, outskilled everyone, didn't pass the ball,
scored. Oh my God. And then he spoke: he was from Madiera, and the
accent there is very different.
“Everyone started to laugh. He had a hard time with that accent. It sounded like it was not Portuguese.
“We couldn't understand. He threw a chair at a teacher once because people were laughing and they didn't stop it.”
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