Cristiano Ronaldo interview on Chinese talk show turns sour as he lost his patience

Football player Cristiano Ronaldo apparently had an unpleasant interview experience with Chinese talk show host Gao Xiaosong for Youku TV, one of China’s major video platforms, during a two-day visit to Beijing on July 19 and 20.

“Cristiano Ronaldo lost his patience, especially after Gao Xiaosong asked about his retirement plan,” he revealed on the social media platform. “Ronaldo feels he’s at the peak of his career and discussion about retirement is way too early, so he asked his assistant to help him end the interview,” he wrote.After the interview, an interpreter who was asked to translate clips of recorded conversations between Ronaldo and his assistants, announced on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, on Friday that Ronaldo was impatient and cut the interview short. Moreover, he or his team even cursed in Portuguese.

He said that when the time was up, Gao insisted on asking the final question, leading to either Ronaldo or a member of his team uttering the swear word in Portuguese. He then suggested that Youku hire an attractive female host to conduct interviews, as he found Gao’s face unappealing.

Gao, who is well known among younger Chinese, later responded on Weibo as well. “The interpreter is quite unprofessional,” he said. He also stated that Ronaldo arrived over an hour late for his scheduled appearance, before his team cut the interview short after just 31 minutes - even though it was due to last for 45 minutes.

As for the question concerning his retirement plans, Gao said that Ronaldo had answered this question, previously raised by Western media outlets, before insisting it was on the drafted question list which had been approved by his team. According to the interviewer, he asked for a final question that would take only 10 seconds to answer for the sake of a complete programme. “Ronaldo also answered,” he said.

Gao believes it must have been a problem from Ronaldo's side, because he has interviewed many famous people, such as former US president Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Irish president Michael D Higgins and others without any problems. “The atmosphere was harmonious,” he concluded.

Broadcast of the interview has been postponed due to this incident, added Gao.