Vinicius Junior has added a painting of Cristiano Ronaldo to the wall of his home gym in the Spanish capital after a joking request from the former Real Madrid striker
Vinicius Junior and Cristiano Ronaldo met in January ahead of a friendly in Saudi Arabia
Vinicius Junior has added an image of Cristiano Ronaldo to his home gym after the Portuguese superstar cheekily criticised his absence from the ‘wall of legends’.
The Brazil international has a painted wall of superstar sporting figures including Ronaldo Nazario, Pele, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant at the gym of his home in Madrid. He has now added former Real Madrid star Ronaldo alongside current LA Lakers star LeBron James to the wall.
Ronaldo completed his transfer to the Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr in January and spent time with his former club that month, as they visited the Middle Eastern nation to feature in the Spanish Supercopa.
At that time, Madrid forward wrote on Instagram alongside images of him with Ronaldo: “Meeting my biggest idol!” The 37-year-old had paid a visit to Real Madrid’s training session in Saudi Arabia, where Carlo Ancelotti’s side are due to face Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup final.
Ronaldo was also pictured chatting to Los Blancos boss Carlo Ancelotti, who looked delighted to see his former Real Madrid charge.
The Portuguese superstar was also videoed having a lengthy chat with Vinicius at the facilities. Ronaldo joked at the time that “I am missing” from the Brazilian’s home gym, in a warm conversation of mutual respect between the two.
The paintings of LeBron James and Cristiano Ronaldo are now in place in the gym of Vinicius
The video was released at the time by Real Madrid’s social media channels, with the conversation culminating with a hug between the two players and Ronaldo referring to Vinicius as “son” in a clear show of admiration.
Ronaldo is a club legend at Real Madrid having netted a scarcely believable 450 goals for the club across nine seasons between 2009 and 2018, in just 438 appearances. He won four Champions League titles in the Spanish capital across that spell.
Vinicius joined the Madrid squad in the summer that Ronaldo departed for Juventus and has developed into one of the world’s best attacking players in the five years since. He has clocked up over 200 appearances for the club, scoring 55 goals.
The 22-year-old bagged 22 goals for the club last campaign including the winner in the Champions League final over Liverpool and is on course to surpass that total this time round with 19 goals and counting for Ancelotti’s side.
