In recent years, there have been rumors that Cristiano Ronaldo had a teammate at Sporting who was better than him. Fabio Paim and Ronaldo were said to have played together early in their careers, and Paim claimed that Ronaldo told him he was a better player than him.
Paim recently spoke to The Sun about what his life has been like since he and Ronaldo parted ways. He discussed how fame and fortune destroyed him, leading him to end up in prison on charges of drug dealing. In the interview, Paim recounted that Ronaldo had once said: “If you think I’m good, wait until you see Fabio Paim.” Paim repeated the same story in a podcast, claiming that he would be better than Ronaldo if he worked half as hard as him and would be Messi’s main competitor for the Ballon d’Or.
Ronaldo himself responded to the interview but not as expected. He commented on social networks: “VTF. Who is this character?” It is clear that the Portuguese does not remember Paim. Transfermarkt claims that Paim played for more than 20 clubs in his career and at his peak, he was worth 400,000 euros while on loan at Chelsea.