Real Madrid legend Michel Salgado has admitted that he did not expect Cristiano Ronaldo to leave the club this summer.
Ronaldo joined Juventus in a blockbuster £100m deal, ending an illustrious nine-year stay in the Spanish capital which saw him become Madrid's all-time leading goalscorer.
Salgado acknowledged that it will be "very difficult" for Los Blancos to replace the five-time Ballon d'Or winner, and admits that he had expected Ronaldo to retire as a Real player.
"I was not expecting that for sure. I knew that he was really tired and maybe he wanted a new challenge but I thought he was going to retire at Real Madrid, because it was something special for us after all he's done there," Salgado told Sports Mole at FIFA's The Best awards.
"It was a different player of course. He was the soul of Real Madrid for many years - for us, he made the difference. It's very difficult to find somebody like him to be honest. We have to be more of a team right now. When you are talking about 40, 50 goals a year it's very difficult to find a player like that. So it's not the best exit for us, when he decided to join Juventus, now Juventus are enjoying him.
"But obviously we have to wish him the best because we cannot complain about what he's done with Real Madrid. He's been fantastic every year, the fans loved him, and now it's about moving forward, it's a different moment for Real Madrid. The Cristiano years are over and we need to look for, to find the style as a team, to try to generate those goals that he used to score."
Ronaldo ended his Madrid career with 450 goals in just 438 appearances across all competitions.
Barney Corkhill
