Marius Niculae (40) fondly remembers the times when he shared the same room, the same locker room, at Sporting Lisbon, with Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, 37, an ambitious kid who was to become one of the greatest footballers in the story. The two were very good friends, and CR7 even saw in the Romanian footballer an example to follow. This is how the Lusitano began his obsession with a carefully designed body.
Marius Niculae claimed that it is thanks to him that Cristiano Ronaldo likes to perform hundreds, even thousands of abs a day. “Arrow” was used to it since he practiced judo, and Cristiano did not want to lose sight of it.
“A lot of people ask me questions about Cristiano Ronaldo, especially since I was a colleague of his at Sporting. And I explain to them that apart from his talent, he worked very, very hard. I did a thousand sit-ups with him before or after training. He knows it from me. He was doing sit-ups, but not a thousand. In judo, the sport I practiced before football, to go from one belt to another you had to do a thousand abs and 150 push-ups. I used to do it here too. Being roommates, he stayed with me for a long time, I took him from my house, I brought him home by car”.
“I knew he was going to grow up, because I saw him. I was impressed by something else, the strength of my feet. When you come back from vacation, you give evidence. I was training anyway, because I was training with my dad. I expected to be the first and when I look at the lists I see Ronaldo.” Marius Niculae told Fans .
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