After an “interview” with Spanish magazine Don Balon, Napoli’s Gonzalo Higuain supposedly made remarks about Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo. The interview was posted on their website, in which he said among other things, that Ronaldo was “overrated” and that Ronaldo “has a very big ego.”
After both Napoli and Higuain deny that such an interview even took place, the story seems to have been pulled from Don Balon’s website. It’s important to note that Don Balon was a Barcelona based magazine covering Barcelona FC that ceased publication in 2011 in favor of doing everything online. I don’t read Don Balon and don’t claim to be an expert on the site apart from a quick Google search, but I wouldn’t be shocked that Don Balon isn’t the most impartial source in reporting about Barcelona and Real Madrid and maybe there was some foul play (either intentional or unintentional) in the legitimacy of portions of this interview, or the legitimacy of the entire interview in itself.
According to Napoli and Higuain, he didn’t even conduct an interview with Don Balon. Their statement (translated from Italian) reads:
“[Napoli] denies the alleged interview with Higuain in “Don Balon”
About the alleged statements attributed to Gonzalo Higuain and reported by the magazine “Don Balon,” Napoli and the striker categorically deny that he ever granted an interview with “Don Balon.”
Therefore the sentences attributed to Higuain are considered false and without any foundation.”
I’m sure this is something that people will forget in a short period of time and that it likely isn’t that big of a deal to Ronaldo specifically, but this highlights the dangers of anyone being able to say anything and that it can easily be interpreted as factual and trend in this “up to the second” news cycle. It’s difficult to trust what you read when things like this happens. Not to sound like an old man or be high and mighty on my soapbox or anything, but it’s getting harder and harder to discern what I read is legitimate or not. And I say that both as a soccer fan and someone who tries to write and report honest and factual soccer content on 32 Flags.
