Cristiano Ronaldo hits back at former team-mate Rafael van der Vaart with brutal four-word response – after the Dutchman explained his bizarre x-rated theory behind the Portuguese icon’s success

Cristiano Ronaldo has issued a savage reply to his old Real Madrid team-mate Rafael van der Vaart after the Dutchman revealed his bizarre theory as to why the Portuguese has had such a successful career.

The pair played together at Los Blancos in the 2009/10 season and both performed well for Manuel Pellegrini’s side despite the team failing to win a major trophy, with Ronaldo bagging 33 goals in 35 games and van der Vaart picking up seven goals and seven assists in 31 matches.

The Dutch midfielder ended the duo’s partnership when he moved to Tottenham Hotspur ahead of the following season, while ‘CR7’ went on bag a whopping 450 strikes in 438 appearances for Real.

But, 14 years on, it seems that Ronaldo has remained on van der Vaart’s mind, with the 41-year-old telling talkSPORT why he thought his former colleague had gone on to have such a remarkable career.

He revealed that he had ‘never seen [Ronaldo’s] penis’, in a shocking remark which the midfielder clarified meant that the Portuguese was always out on the training field and never came into the showers.

It seems that Ronaldo has not taken kindly to van der Vaart’s crude comments and took to Instagram this week to deliver a brutal response to the cheeky Dutchman.

The icon posted, ‘Who is that guy?’, under a reposting of the remarks on the platform.

Several former team-mates of Ronaldo have praised the meticulous Portugal international for his superb professionalism and commitment to football over the years, but none have done so in quite the same way as Van der Vaart did this week.

The Dutchman told the station’s TheLineUp podcast: ‘He never left the house! I always tell this joke: Ronaldo is the only player whose penis I’ve never seen. He was always the first one to train and the last one to leave.’ 

Van der Vaart, whose joke prompted those on the podcast to burst out with laughter, continued: ‘First of all, his body, wow. He was a machine.

‘He was a little ahead of his time, players today do the same. But his training in the gym, his diet, his sleep, all of that was more important to him than training extra hard (on the pitch).’

The ex-Netherlands international went on to explain Ronaldo’s hunger for goals and explained how the craving was ‘selfish’ at times. 

‘He was incredibly selfish,’ Van der Vaart added. ‘If we won 6-0 and he didn’t score, he wasn’t happy, but when we lost, he was happy if he scored two. 

‘Did he play just for himself? No, it was just his need to score. Ruud van Nistelrooy was the same. 

‘We had a lot of conversations with him and it was very interesting because he kept saying: “I need my goals!”.’

Ronaldo became the first player in football history to score 900 goals after his cool finish put Portugal 2-0 up against Croatia in September. 

According to transfermarkt, Ronaldo’s first ever goal came for Sporting Lisbon in a league game against Moreirense on October 7, 2002 courtesy of a solo run.

But even a man of his supreme confidence could not have predicted he would still be scoring 22 years later and passing 900 strikes.

Whether the legend can reach four figures remains to be seen, with the footballer, who now plays for Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia, currently focussing more on life away from the pitch. 

In order to connect more closely with his fans worldwide, the Portuguese superstar unveiled his latest project on the video-sharing platform and has already earned more than 71 million subscribers.