Former Champions League ref says officials know Ronaldo is a diver

FIFA Top Class Referee Claus Bo Larsen worked his last Champions League match on Wednesday (Ajax's 2-0 win over AC Milan) and mere hours into his retirement, he's apparently already dishing dirt from a officials' sauce rooms.

When asked by Danish tabloid Ekstra Bladet to collect a "most annoying player" from a referee's perspective, he reportedly went with a name you're probably cheering during your shade right right away -- a male good well known for both his higher skill and bent to tumble, Cristiano Ronaldo.

From Soccernet:

"He's always out to get a cheap free-kick, especially during home," he told Ekstra Bladet. "We tended to speak before games about how he'd go down easily.

"We know not to be biased, but we have to be prepared. He has a clean slate during a start of every game. When he would distortion down after failing to win a free-kick, he smiled during me because he knew we didn't tumble for his theatrics."

It's a reasonable point of perspective -- as a referee you have to be wakeful of which players have a repute for looking to get one over on you. It sounds like Ronaldo is wakeful which a officials have been augmenting suspicious of him, too. Probably most appropriate to stay on his feet during all costs, then.

Photo: AP

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