Brazen-faced Juventus and Ronaldo

By Park Moo-jong

Two weeks have passed since Christiano Ronaldo of Juventus enraged Koreans by not taking to the pitch for the Italian football clubs' pre-season game against the K League All-Stars in Seoul in a breach of contract requiring the Portuguese "superstar" to play at least 45 minutes.

But neither Juventus nor Ronaldo have yet made any sincere apology to the angry Koreans, not to speak of the fans who paid big money only to see him on the bench. Rather Juventus Chairman Andrea Agnelli dismissed any idea of disrespect toward Korean fans in a letter to K League President Kwon Oh-gyu.

The absurd response from the Italian club leader must remind the cheated Koreans of an old four-letter Chinese idiom, "賊反荷杖" (jeok ban ha jang), meaning that "the thief turns on the master with a club."

He said in the letter that "every single player present in Korea played the match, except for Ronaldo, who was obliged, according to our medical staff's advice, to rest due to muscle fatigue after the Nangjing game (against Inter Milan) which was only 48 hours before the one in Seoul."

The Juventus (meaning youth) chief then claimed that his team's preparations for the game had been complicated due to heavy traffic on its way from Grand Hyatt Hotel to the Seoul World Cup Stadium and therefore he rejects the accusation of the club's irresponsible behavior, arrogance and disregard of Korean fans.

But his claims were immediately found to be groundless according to overall and objective evidence suggested by the K League side and what Ronaldo did after returning to Italy. He only made a lame and shameless excuse against the truth, further fueling the rage of Koreans.

For his own part, Ronaldo proved himself back at home that he had no muscle problem. As if he intended to wind up angry Koreans, he posted a video clip on social media of himself running on a treadmill back in Italy. He was seen running quite well in the video subtitled "Nice to be back home."

As most Korean news outlets reported, it is quite no wonder that the irresponsible behavior of Juventus and Ronaldo is escalating into a legal battle. Thousands of Korean fans are participating in lawsuits against the Italian football club and the Portuguese star player as well as the Korean organizer, TheFasta. Notably, some lawyers have filed criminal complaints against the three for fraud.

Juventus officials and Ronaldo are advised to see a photo of a protest of football fans and their lawyer in front of the Korean Football Association building in central Seoul on Monday (Aug. 5) holding various pickets, one of which shows the portrait of Ronald with the words: "You're Liar."

Watching the development of the incident, many Korean football fans could not but remind themselves of Juventus' disgraceful history.

Twelve years ago in 2006, Juventus was relegated to the second division, Serie B, for its part in the high-profile Calciopoli (Footballgate) match-fixing scandal.

Ahead of World Cup 2006, Italy's biggest clubs including AC Milan, Inter Milan and Fiorentina, were implicated in a match-fixing scandal, with the spotlight firmly on Juventus based in Turin. Its managing director Luciano Moggi was found guilty of having an exclusive relationship with referee designators, exerting his influence on them to select referees he preferred.

In punishment, the club was relegated to the second division for the first time ever. On top of that, it was given a nine-point deduction at the start of league play, and had its 2005 and 2006 titles stripped by the Italian governing body.

The Italian football club needs to think twice why the Korean fans recalled its painful past and Ronaldo should keep in mind why the Korean fans chanted the name of Argentine superstar Messi instead of his name during the Seoul match.

Indeed, Ronaldo and Messi used to be the most favorite football stars of Korean fans. But the shameful incident stripped the Portuguese ace of his international fame at least in Korea.

In a crystal-clear comparison, Messi of Barcelona failed to travel to the United States for friendlies against Napoli in Miami and Michigan on Aug. 8 and 11 due to a calf injury he suffered on Monday.

The five-time Ballon d'Or winner immediately wrote on Instagram, "I was keen to get started and unfortunately I had a setback in my first training session that is going to leave me out for a little. While I wanted to be with the team and the people who are following us in the USA. This time it cannot be, but we'll see each other again soon. A hug to everyone."

Messi showed what a world star like him should be like, differently with Ronaldo who must be thinking silence is golden.

What forces Juventus and Ronaldo not to make an apology? Are they afraid of penalties for breach of contract? Ronaldo reportedly earns roughly $663,000 per week (about 800 million won) with Juventus.

Park Moo-jong (emjei29@gmail.com) is a standing adviser of The Korea Times. He served as the president-publisher of the nation's first English daily newspaper from 2004 to 2014 after working as a reporter since 1974.