Celta Vigo full-back Jonny believes it would be “honorable” for Ballon d’Or favorite Cristiano Ronaldo to come forward and admit that he was wrong to con the refereeinto awarding him a penalty during Real’s 3-0 win against Celta last weekend. While Ronaldo has received much praise throughout Europe for scoring his record-breaking 23rd La Liga hat trick onSaturday, Jonny notes that there has been almost no focus on the fact that his first goal — a penalty — came after the Portuguese tumbled in the box following minimal contact from the Spain U21international.
“I really do think that these type of actions must be punished,” Jonny said. “In the end it dirties football a bit. If we were all honorable in these type of plays, there wouldbe less whistles for referees and they would have things much easier. We must help the referees. We have already seen many times that players dive and later recognized afterwards that there was nofoul. That would be honorable on his [Ronaldo’s] part.”
He continued: “[Ronaldo] does not seem like a cheat to me. We all pull some tricks sometimes, we have all thrown ourselves down on someoccasion, whether through our momentum or for whatever reason. … In this case it was a quick action and Cristiano noticed contact, but not enough for a foul or to make him fall. He looked for apenalty, the referee bought it and whistled. Then we were rowing against the current, and that against Madrid is very difficult.”