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Former Real Madrid defender Pepe has shared that Cristiano Ronaldo generously offered him a portion of his salary to stay at the Santiago Bernabeu during their time together at Los Blancos.

Despite Ronaldo’s best efforts, Pepe left Madrid in 2017 for personal reasons, moving to Turkish club Besiktas.

Pepe and Ronaldo have always shared a special connection, both on and off the pitch.

The duo played together for both club and country until Pepe’s retirement following Euro 2024 in Germany.

The two Portuguese players initially crossed paths at Sporting CP’s academy before reuniting at Real Madrid in 2009.

Although Pepe formed a solid defensive partnership with Sergio Ramos at Madrid for several years, earning an estimated £110,000 per week, he chose to join Besiktas as a free agent in 2017.

However, Ronaldo urgently offered him part of his £365,000 weekly salary in an attempt to persuade him to remain at Madrid.

“I tried to explain to him that I could no longer be there because of the difficulties I was having at the time and he said: ‘If it’s about the money, mate, I’ll give up my money to give it to you!’ And I said no: ‘Thank God it’s not about that; it’s for other reasons,” Pepe said in an interview with Renascenca (via GOAL).

“I also wanted to get back to feeling football, and that’s it, I decided to go to Turkey.”

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