Ronaldo Knows Why Messi Passed to Suarez on his Penalty Kick

Before the first leg of Real Madrid's Champions League match against A.S. Roma, Cristiano Ronaldo was asked about Messi's much-discussed penalty kick gift to Luis Suarez. In words not quite as precise and clear as his abdominal muscles—how could they be?—Ronaldo responded to a question about the cheeky effort against Celta Vigo with this: "I know why Leo did that, I don't say more. Think what you want."

OK! Now, that's obviously not precise nor is it at all clear, but maybe we can investigate a bit.

Ah, well, maybe we are getting somewhere. It's certainly understandable that Ronaldo would automatically assume that Messi and Suarez conspired to pad the stats to keep Ronaldo in second place—you don't become a world class athlete without a world class ego or world class paranoia—but that's a lot of effort to put into it, isn't it?

Why not just let Suarez take the shot? Too obvious.

Why would Neymar say it was actually intended for him? To throw him off the scent.

If Messi was so good wouldn't he just try to score more goals than Ronaldo himself? Good point. He's afraid of of Cristiano, or scared to fail, so he lets Suarez go up against him.

Sure. Yep. Makes all the sense in the world.

[101 Great Goals]