Paul Clement has revealed the one attribute which made Cristiano Ronaldo stand out from his teammates.
The pair worked together at Real Madrid during Clement’s two years in the Spanish capital.
Clement has revealed the one attribute which separated Ronaldo from his team-mates[/caption]
He served as Carlo Ancelotti’s assistant during his first spell at the Santiago Bernabeu between 2013 and 2015.
Across that period, Ronaldo scored a staggering 112 goals in 101 appearances across all competitions.
Real Madrid also won four trophies during that period including the Copa del Rey, Champions League and Club World Cup.
However, it was not winning matches and lifting trophies which highlighted Ronaldo’s elite mentality.
Instead, Clement pinpoints the five-time Ballon d’Or winner’s reaction to not scoring as what sets him apart.
Recalling their interactions, he told talkSPORT: “If he (Ronaldo) didn’t score a goal, but the team had won, he’d be really disappointed in the dressing room.
“And I said, ‘look, Cristiano, the team’s done really well. You’ve contributed.’ ‘No, I didn’t contribute to it. My job is to score.’ So he’d get annoyed about stuff like that.
“But the really best ones, they’re so committed to getting better and improving all the time.”
However, Clement doubts whether current Real Madrid star Kylian Mbappe possesses the same attribute.
The 53-year-old admitted: “I look at a current player in Mbappe at Real Madrid, and I’m not sure he’s got that in him.
“You see some of the physical statistics he’s turning out in games, and he’s nowhere near what the very, very best do week in, week out.
“So I’d be really interested to see how that plays out at Real Madrid.”
Mbappe joined the Spanish giants on a free transfer from Paris Saint-Germain last summer after a drawn out saga.
The Frenchman has since scored 32 goals in 49 appearances under Ancelotti.
He could end his debut season without a major trophy, though, after Real Madrid were knocked out of the Champions League by Arsenal.
They also trail bitter rivals Barcelona, who they also lost to in Saturday’s Copa del Rey final, by four points at the top of La Liga.
Clement does believe that his teammate Jude Bellingham has shown flashes of the mentality needed to become a Ballon d’Or winner.
Asked about the England midfielder, he added: “I think he had it more last year, I have to say.
“I look at this year and I think the balance of the team is slightly different. And there’s been a knock-on effect of Mbappe coming in and how that’s changed the balance of the team.
“And I think it has affected the work rate, the desire, the commitment of that team. So it was really interesting to watch how that goes moving forward.”
Bellingham’s debut season in Spain saw him win the Champions League before reaching the final of Euro 2024 with the Three Lions.
His performances during the campaign were enough to earn him a third place finish in the Ballon d’Or behind Rodri and Vinicius Jr.
Clement had been speaking at Jack Wilshere’s golf day for the British Heart Foundation.
As well as running the Marathon for the BHF, Jack is supporting the Every Minute Matters Relay.
This is the latest phase of the Every Minute Matters campaign which set a goal a year ago of encouraging 360,000 football fans to start learning CPR – the equivalent to four Wembley Stadiums – by May 2025.
You can learn CPR in just 15 minutes with the help of the BHFs free, simple and easy to use online tool, RevivR. Visit bhf.org.uk/revivr
