Fabio Paim, a former teammate of Cristiano Ronaldo at Sporting, has recently revealed that he believes Ronaldo was not the best player he had ever played with. In an interview with The Sun, Paim spoke about how fame and fortune destroyed him after his fallout with Ronaldo, leading to his arrest on charges of drug dealing.
During the interview, Paim claimed that Ronaldo had once told him that he was a better player than him. He also repeated this story in a podcast, stating that if he worked half as hard as Ronaldo, he could be Messi’s main competitor for the Ballon d’Or.
Ronaldo responded to these claims on social networks, expressing confusion and disbelief at who this character was. It is clear that the Portuguese does not remember Paim and does not agree with his assessment of their time together at Sporting.
Transfermarkt claims that Paim played for more than 20 clubs in his career and was worth up to 400,000 euros at one point, while on loan at Chelsea. Despite this, it is unclear whether or not their relationship during their time together was particularly contentious or if there were any underlying issues between them.