Roberto Martínez gave an extensive interview to Adebayo Akinfenwa (former striker for clubs such as Wycombe Wanderers, Northampton Town or Swansea City, who was once known as the "strongest player in the world"), on the YouTube channel 'Beast Mode On', in which he 'opened up' about what it has been like working with Cristiano Ronaldo in the Portuguese national team.

"Success alters his commitment to the next achievement. When you win something, the next day there's less hunger. Cristiano is a person and a player who doesn't let what happened yesterday, whatever it was, affect what he does today. I don't know if it's genetic or if it's possible to work on it, but it's the reality. He has this incredible need to take advantage of each day to be the best he can be," he began by stating.

"This can be at the level of recovery, training, finishing, or whatever aspect he feels he needs to work on. He won't let anything affect what he can improve. It doesn't matter if he scores a hat trick or misses three opportunities, his preparation, as soon as the final whistle blows, and will always be methodical and perfect," he continued.

"That's something that gave him longevity. I always said that a football player retires when the body tells the brain, 'Listen, I'm finished.' With Cristiano, I learned that it's not like that. It's the brain that tells the body it's time to finish. He has this ability to want to be the best, every day. I've never seen that hunger before," he added.

Preferential treatment

Roberto Martínez also took the opportunity to deny that Cristiano Ronaldo is the target of preferential treatment in the national team: "Above all, we have to treat each player individually, differently. There are no two people alike. Obviously, we have Cristiano Ronaldo, the player, who, in the locker room, is someone who wants to prepare himself in the best possible way."

"What he has achieved throughout his career, and the longevity he has, is thanks to his meticulousness. He is a winner, he is a hungry person. We have to match that. What is important is to always match the expectations of each player in the space where we are working. Then, there is another phenomenon that we cannot control, which is the noise," he reflected.

"We are talking about someone who is more than a football player, he is someone whose numbers on social media show that he is followed far beyond the world of football. We are talking about 600 million followers. He is probably the most famous individual in the world. That says nothing about what our demands are and his, in the locker room," he added.

"We always have to get the best out of our players, and we have to create an environment that is conducive to that. The rest, we have to recognize as noise, and if it doesn't affect the group internally, we have to accept it for what it is. You can't waste time trying to change that, because it's impossible to control," he concluded.