Dejan Kulusevski and Cristiano Ronaldo were teammates for one year in Juventus during the 2020/21 season. In the summer of 2021, the Portuguese megastar left the Italians to return to Manchester United, where he played for one season. Now with Tottenham, Dejan Kulusevski opened up about playing alongside one of the greatest players in football history.
The 23-year-old Swedish midfielder had nothing but great words for Cristiano Ronaldo and revealed the one favor he asked his former teammate.
"I gotta be honest, I have never been the type to ask teammates for favours, but I asked Cristiano to sign his shirt, and I gave it to my mother," Kulusevski wrote on Players Tribune, via TalkSport.
"Five years earlier we had been talking about me moving back to Sweden, maybe get a normal job. Now I was playing with one of the greatest of all time. Dreams do come true for normal people."
Almost four years later, Kulusevski left Juventus for Tottenham, while Cristiano Ronaldo moved to Saudi Arabia and Al-Nassr in 2022.
Dejan Kulusevski was impressed by Cristiano Ronaldo's work ethic
Cristiano Ronaldo will go down in football history as one of the greatest players of all time. The Portuguese megastar received high praise for the way he practices and plays, and Dejan Kulusevski admitted that he was impressed by Ronaldo's work ethic.
"And Cristiano? What a guy, man. After training, everyone would be on their phones, but not him. You could see how hard he worked, how much he wanted it, even though he had nothing left to prove," the Swedish midfielder said.
Dejan Kulusevski also revealed that playing alongside football legends like Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Cristiano Ronaldo helped him elevate his game and become a better player.
This season, Kulusevski has appeared in 26 games with the Spurs across competitions, with six goals and three assists. Tottenham is fifth in the English Premier League with 53 points, trailing Aston Villa (fourth place) by two points.