Cristiano Ronaldo jokes with Barcelona new signing – ‘You had to retire to go to a big club’ | OneFootball

Wojciech Szczesny’s career is ironically peaking after it ended as the player came out of retirement to sign for Barcelona earlier this month as a replacement for the injured Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

The Polish goalkeeper is working hard to return to complete match fitness at the earliest as he aims to displace Inaki Pena from the starting lineup.

If recent reports are to be believed, that aligns with Hansi Flick’s plans as the manager also sees Szczesny as a first-choice starter in the coming weeks.

An interaction with Ronaldo

Having recently retired from international football, Szczesny was honoured in Poland this past weekend when his national team took on Portugal in the UEFA Nations League, as revealed by SPORT.

As part of the events on the night, Barcelona star Robert Lewandowski and his international teammates entered the field with jerseys bearing photos of the goalkeeper as a way of saying farewell.

What caught the attention of the media, however, was Szczesny’s interaction in the dressing room with Cristiano Ronaldo.

Szczesny was honoured by the Poland national team. (Photo by Rafal Oleksiewicz/Getty Images)

As relayed by the outlet, the goalkeeper told his former Juventus teammate that he had signed for Barcelona, to which Ronaldo gave a rather amusing reply.

“You had to retire to go to a big club,” said the Real Madrid legend.

While it is indeed great to see the Real Madrid legend give Barcelona the respect they deserve, the statement will not go down well in Italy or England.

After all, Ronaldo himself played with the Polish goalkeeper for Juventus in Serie A while Szczesny has also defended Arsenal’s crest in the past, both of which Ronaldo did not deem worthy of considering a ‘big’ club.

Nevertheless, the goalkeeper is expected to return to Barcelona in the coming days to continue his training and link up with Hansi Flick ahead of the restart of club football.

With the likes of Bayern Munich and Real Madrid on the schedule soon, his hands will be itching to get back into action.