Brazil legend Ronaldo Nazario has said he enjoys watching tennis because football is now too boring for him.
Speaking at the Mouratoglou Academy, Ronaldo said he dedicated more time watching tennis than football.
“I love everything about tennis. I think tennis more now than football,” Ronaldo was quoted on Tribuna.
“It’s unbelievable, but I cannot watch whole football matches now. I think it’s too boring. Five hours watching tennis? Yes, please. It’s crazy,” the 1994 and 2002 World Cup winner said.
Aside Ronaldo, who featured for Real Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan and AC Milan, there are other past and present footballers who admitted they have interest in other stuff than the sport that brought them fame and fortune.
In a 2007 interview with the Mirror, former Leeds, Newcastle and England 1998 World Cup star David Batty said he said does not understand why people pay to watch football.
“The national game is boring. And I’ve not been to watch any match since I finished playing. I can never understand anybody paying to watch it, never mind going all the way across the world to see it. You want to be entertained.”
Barcelona and Germany goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen is considered one of the finest goalkeepers in the world.
But even he isn’t bothered about watching the sport that earns him millions of Euros a year, to the point where he can’t even name the players he’s facing.
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“People laugh when I tell them I have no idea about football,” he told El Pais in 2020. “I don’t watch a lot of football, except when there are good games or when I’m particularly interested in one because I have a relationship or a friend. Sometimes they ask me for a player’s name and I have no idea.
“In La Liga, for example, it happens to me with names. I don’t know what they are called. But later, when they show me the video, I realise that I know exactly who it is.”
Legendary Argentina striker Gabriel Batistuta is another who confessed he didn’t really care a great deal for the game.
“I do not like football, it is just my profession,” he said when interviewed on Argentinian telly.
The former Fiorentina and AS Roma striker once told four four two that every time he went back to Argentina on holidays, friends would invite him to play polo and he was curious to know whether he would be able to do it (playing polo).
“I tried [it] out, and I ended up loving it. It’s a hobby, but I always try to improve my standard, because the better I play, the more fun I have.”
