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Update

Cristiano Ronaldo has taken to his Facebook page to deny the reports of his nickname for Lionel Messi.

Original text

Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo and Barcelona star Lionel Messi are usually quite cordial when they speak about each other in public, but the intense rivalry between the pair has often been hinted at.



Now the extent of the dislike, on Ronaldo's part at least, has been revealed by Spanish football expert Guillem Balague.

Balague has already written one book about Messi, and he will soon release another one about Ronaldo.

He has revealed in an article for the Daily Telegraph the nasty name Ronaldo reserves for Messi and his friends.

As per the newspaper:

Ronaldo, perhaps as a symptom of the immaturity that marks so many footballers, thinks it necessary to put on a brave face in front of his team-mates, not be scared of Messi and to rise to the challenge. All very macho; all very false. And that is why, according to some Real Madrid players, CR7 has a nickname for him: ‘motherf----r’; and if he sees someone from the club speaking to Leo, he also ends up being baptised ‘motherf----r'. In that environment, Ronaldo usually compares their relationship with that between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. And the Madrid players, with their less than subtle dressing-room sense of humour, have a long list of jokes that include Messi as Ronaldo’s dog or puppet, or kept in a designer handbag belonging to the Portuguese player. And much worse.

Nasty stuff, and we are sure Barcelona's fans will react accordingly when Ronaldo next comes to the Camp Nou in March.

[Daily Telegraph]