Jamie Carragher called Piers Morgan “an absolute phoney” and shared a photograph of an old newspaper column in which Morgan himself had labelled Cristiano Ronaldo a “spoilt brat”.
The post was the sharpest moment yet in a feud between two of British football’s loudest voices, triggered by Ronaldo’s walkout from Portugal’s Nations League camp.
Morgan returned fire on his Football Uncensored show.
“Jamie Carragher and I had an interesting little spat at the weekend fuelled by Carragher saying that Rio Ferdinand and I had been embarrassing defending Cristiano Ronaldo because we’re friends of his,” Morgan told viewers. “And Carragher, as we might remember, got pied live on Sky by Ronaldo, who refused to even acknowledge his existence which might be why he’s being such a big baby about it.”
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Ronaldo’s walkout triggered the row
The pundits’ quarrel began with Ronaldo’s departure from Portugal’s national team camp after a disagreement with head coach Jorge Jesus. The 41-year-old had been an unused substitute away to Norway on 27 September, and later said Jesus had broken a promise to publicly explain the omission.
The Portuguese Football Federation provisionally suspended Ronaldo on 9 October and opened disciplinary proceedings against him over the walkout. Ronaldo has apologised but asked the federation to punish him, and said he remained available for selection.
Speaking on The Overlap Daily, Carragher turned on Morgan and Ferdinand.
“People like Piers Morgan and Rio Ferdinand are embarrassing themselves with the nonsense that they’re coming out with because they know Ronaldo.”
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Suarez history and an old column
Morgan’s first social media reply framed Carragher as the hypocrite, invoking the 2011 Luis Suarez racism case involving Patrice Evra.
“So, @Carra23 dislikes me (and @rioferdy5) sticking up for our friend @Cristiano, or as he puts it ‘defending the indefensible,’” Morgan posted.
Carragher owned the Suarez error, pointing to his televised apology to Evra and Liverpool’s own written apology to the player, before accusing Morgan of insincerity after the 2018 spitting incident that saw the former defender briefly suspended by Sky. Only then did he produce the “spoilt brat” column, calling Morgan an “absolute phoney”.
Morgan signed off the online exchange with a sarcastic shot about a selfie.
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“Mate, I even did a fan selfie for you recently to boost your profile…show a little gratitude!”
Ronaldo scored for Al Nassr against Al Diriyah last Friday while the pundits argued around him. The Portuguese Football Federation’s disciplinary process is still open, with sanctions under its own rules running from one to six months plus a fine.
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