Former Real Madrid defender Pepe has revealed that Cristiano Ronaldo selflessly offered him a part of his salary to stay at the Santiago Bernabeu during their time together at the Los Blancos.
Despite Ronaldo’s best attempts, Pepe left Madrid in 2017 for non-financial reasons, joining Turkish club Besiktas.
Pepe and Ronaldo have shared a special bond both on and off the field.
The pair have played together for both club and country before Pepe retired from the sport following Euro 2024 in Germany.
Both Portuguese shared the pitch during their days at Sporting CP’s academy before reuniting at Real Madrid in 2009.
Despite forming a strong defensive partnership with Sergio Ramos at Madrid for several years, Pepe, earning a reported wage of £110,000 weekly, opted to join Besiktas as a free agent in 2017.
But Ronaldo desperately offered him a part of his £365,000 weekly salary to convince him to stay at Madrid.
“I tried to explain to him that I could no longer be there because of the difficulties I was having at the time and he said: ‘If it’s about the money, mate, I’ll give up my money to give it to you!’ And I said no: ‘Thank God it’s not about that; it’s for other reasons,” Pepe said in an interview with Renascenca (via GOAL).
“I also wanted to get back to feeling football, and that’s it, I decided to go to Turkey.”
