Cristiano Ronaldo has only just rejoined his teammates in Australia to begin preparations for the new season, but he’s already learned a valuable lesson: don’t provoke Pepe. Even if you’re Cristiano Ronaldo.
The two Portuguese teammates are very good friends, so Ronaldo decided to play around with Pepe during a kickaround in Melbourne by repeatedly chest bumping him. Perhaps the brief summer break caused Ronaldo to forget who he was dealing with, because physical contact of any kind only makes Pepe agitated.
So, a few seconds later, Pepe stomped on Ronaldo’s ankle while going for the ball. And as you can see in the photo below, Pepe and Raphael Varane seemed rather amused as Ronaldo rolled around on the ground in momentary pain.
Once Ronaldo got back up and the rondo resumed, he likely made a mental note to never chest bump Pepe again. Lesson learned.
This has been the Dirty Tackle of the Day: a chronicling of unfortunate events.