Cristiano Ronaldo, the world's five-time world champion who joined Juventus this summer, has not been impressed in recent years by former Real Madrid, especially by his boss Florentino Perez.
"I felt inside the club, especially on the president's side, that I did not have the same respect as I did at the beginning," he said in an interview with French magazine France Football.
"In the first four or five years, I felt like Cristiano Ronaldo," he said.
Ronaldo, who joined Real from Manchester United in 2009, stressed that the decision to move to Juventus was not an automatic result of Zinedine Zidane's departure from the technical management of the Royal Club after he led him to the Champions League title for three seasons.
However, the 33-year-old said Zidane's departure "was a small detail that I faced when I thought of putting the club .... That was not what led to my departure, but it did not deter me from doing so."
Ronaldo, who has won the Champions League five times (with United in 2008 and four times with Real), defended his decision to move to Juventus in a deal worth about 100 million euros, denying the money was motivated.
"If I wanted to make my move a money issue, but I moved to China, where I would get five times as much as I got here (in Turin) or in Real, I did not come to Juventus for the money."
The interview with France Football comes weeks before the magazine announces the name of the winner of the Golden Ball award, which is given annually to the best player, at a ceremony scheduled for the third of December.
"Yes, I dream of winning the Golden Ball for the sixth time and, in this case, surpassing Lionel Messi," the Argentine star of Barcelona, who has also won five times.
Following the dominance of the players in individual football awards over the past decade, Luka Modric, Ronaldo's former colleague at Real, appears to be a strong candidate for the Golden Ball this year after being named the best player in the world by the European Union (UEFA) and the International Federation (FIFA) .
