Ronaldo aiming to put engagement controversy behind him
Ronaldo says he is fully focused on Tuesday's Champions League tie against Juventus and has not been distracted by the attention generated by his engagement celebrations.
Ronaldo says he is fully focused on Tuesday's Champions League tie against Juventus and has not been distracted by the attention generated by his engagement celebrations.
"I haven't got any apologies to make," the Real Madrid striker told a news conference at the Bernabeu on Monday.
"I'm a professional and a very responsible person. In the last two weeks even the sporting press have turned into gossip magazines the way they have reported the events surrounding my wedding."
The 28-year-old hit the headlines last week when he threw a lavish Valentine's Day party at a secluded French chateau to mark his engagement to Brazilian model Daniella Cicarelli.
He returned from the celebrations with an injury to his big toe and arrived late for training two days in succession.
"I don't want to justify any mistakes I made last week," he said. "But if I make mistakes I want to sort them out directly with the club and not find out through the press."
"I read in the papers on the Wednesday that I would be fined, but I wasn't told by the club until I met with them on Thursday and I still haven't received anything official yet."
"I've always been very careful to sort out any problems behind closed doors and face to face with the club, but this time I found everything in the press first."
Ronaldo added that it was unfair to accuse him of choosing an inconvenient time for the party because it had been the club who had suggested the date.
"I originally thought that January 2 would be the best date, but it was the club that told me that February 14 would be more suitable."
The striker was dropped to the bench for Saturday's league game against Athletic Bilbao.
He came on as a second-half substitute, but contributed little and was unable to stop the Basques putting an end to Real's seven-match wining streak by claiming a 2-0 victory at the Bernabeu.
Ronaldo said he did not see Luxemburgo's decision to leave him out of the starting line-up as retaliation for his behaviour.
"The boss said he wanted to rest some of us all before the game against Juventus, so I'm not taking it as a punishment. My main concern now is to make sure we win on Tuesday."
"It's a decisive match and I haven't scored for three or four games and I'm really keen to get on the score sheet again. We have to get a good result here because the return leg will be very tough indeed."