Cristiano Ronaldo’s perfectionism has always bordered on obsession, but one of his former Juventus teammates recently shared a story that captures just how unorthodox his methods could be, per OneFootball. Gianluca Frabotta, who played under Maurizio Sarri during the 2019–20 season, recalled a moment when the Portuguese superstar expressed his frustration with the manager’s tactical micromanagement in a way only Ronaldo could.
Frabotta told Corriere della Sera that during a training session, Sarri tried to instruct Ronaldo on where to move during set pieces. The forward, never one to enjoy over-explaining the obvious, became visibly irritated. “He didn’t need instructions; he was different,” Frabotta said. “He could feel where the ball was going to end up.”
So, to make his point, Ronaldo bent down, ripped a handful of grass from the pitch, smelled it, and then chewed it. He reportedly told Sarri afterward, “I like to understand the pitch and where the ball goes.” It was an act that stunned his teammates but summed up the mindset of a player who believes his instincts are sharper than any tactical diagram.
Shoots from 30 yards, keeper makes the save, and somehow he is back in the box to head the ball in, the very next second. There has never lived a player with better positional awareness.
Cristiano Ronaldo's time at Juventus was incredibly underrated
pic.twitter.com/Vo9yv2N2WY— Preeti (@MadridPreeti) September 21, 2025
The complicated Ronaldo–Sarri dynamic
Maurizio Sarri’s lone season at Juventus remains one of the strangest chapters in the club’s recent history. Hired to modernize the team’s playstyle after Massimiliano Allegri’s pragmatic reign, Sarri found himself managing one of football’s biggest brands in Ronaldo. Despite Juve winning the Serie A title, the tension between the two often overshadowed the results.
“Managing Ronaldo is not simple,” Sarri later admitted in an interview with Sport Italia. “He is a multinational company; his personal interests must coincide with football.” While praising the forward’s professionalism and output, Sarri suggested that handling a player of Ronaldo’s magnitude was unlike managing anyone else.
Ironically, it was under Sarri that Ronaldo produced his most prolific season in Italy, scoring 37 goals in 46 matches across all competitions. Juventus captured their ninth straight Serie A title, but the relationship between star and coach never fully clicked. When the team crashed out of the Champions League against Lyon, Sarri was dismissed within days.
Ronaldo’s time in Turin, however, remained a statistical triumph—101 goals in 134 games—and that famous “grass-chewing” episode has since become symbolic of his unmatched intensity and stubborn genius.
As for Frabotta, his journey after Juventus has taken him through Verona, Frosinone, Bari, Cosenza, and even England’s West Bromwich Albion before landing at Cesena this summer. Yet, years later, what sticks with him most isn’t the trophies or the transfers. It’s the image of Cristiano Ronaldo, standing on a practice pitch, tasting the grass to prove that sometimes, greatness doesn’t need coaching—it simply knows.
