“You don’t want to be the reason why something happens” - Rio Ferdinand refuses to text Cristiano Ronaldo from Jose Fonte’s phone during challenge

Rio Ferdinand avoided texting Cristiano Ronaldo during a phone challenge game with Jose Fonte in the latest podcast of Rio Ferdinand Presents FIVE on YouTube. The incident happened ahead of Ronaldo's Portugal facing France in the Euro 2024 quarter-finals on Friday, July 5. After a goalless 90 minutes, the Selecaos lost 5-3 on penalties.

The funny game featured former footballers Ferdinand and Fonte spinning a wheel and doing bizarre tasks based on where the wheel stopped. In Ferdinand's turn, the wheel stopped at the phone challenge.

The former Manchester United star had to text anyone from Fonte's phone for fun. The two former defenders discussed whether they should text Cristiano Ronaldo, but decided against it as they assumed the Portuguese ace would be preparing for the Euro 2024 quarter-final clash.

Rio Ferdinand: “Cristiano is preparing for the game.”

Jose Fonte: “Don’t bother the man.”

Rio Ferdinand: “You don’t want to be the reason why something happens.”

Ferdinand finally ended up texting Virgil van Dijk from Fonte's phone, asking whether he was the Dutchman's idol while growing up.

“Watching some old Premier League games, Rio [Ferdinand] was a monster. Was he your idol growing up?” Ferdinand texted Van Dijk.

Fonte later ended the segment by asking Ferdinand to take an image of them together so Van Dijk would know the reason behind the bizarre text.

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Former Portugal star Jose Fonte opened up about Cristiano Ronaldo's leadership qualities

Portugal v Andorra - FIFA 2018 World Cup Qualifier (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)

Jose Fonte spoke highly about Cristiano Ronaldo's leadership qualities in the latest podcast of Rio Ferdinand Presents FIVE on YouTube.

Fonte and Ronaldo shared the pitch 40 times for Portugal, having two joint-goal contributions. The duo won Euro 2016 and the 2018-19 UEFA Nations League together.

Recalling his time playing alongside the Real Madrid legend for the national team, Fonte described how vocal Ronaldo is as a leader.

“I have only good things to say [about his leadership]. He’s vocal, sometimes when things don’t go your way [as a team], he will express his feelings. But what I remember the most is that with him, you know he’s going to do something. He doesn’t really need to speak much. We know that when he’s on the pitch, we just have to keep the clean sheet and he’ll do the rest," Fonte said.

Fonte specifically remembered Portugal's 3-3 draw with Spain in the group stages of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Cristiano Ronaldo delivered an iconic performance by scoring a hat-trick. One of his goals was a beautiful free-kick, widely considered one of the Portuguese icon's best career goals.

"I remember a game against Spain. We were losing in the World Cup and he scored three goals. He basically got us that draw by himself. We were really poor and he just said, ‘don’t worry about it, I’ll take care of it," Jose Fonte recalled.

“He scored those the three goals like it’s easy. There’s many more moments like that one for sure. He’s a guy, who for every Portuguese player or person, who you respect the most,” he added.

Ronaldo was far from his best at Euro 2024. He failed to score and provided just one assist as Portugal crashed out of the quarter-finals.