During his two-day visit to Beijing, Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo joined a Chinese talk show hosted by renowned musician Gao Xiaosong on Friday. The Portuguese soccer star and his team, however, were later confronted with an “unpleasant” question and demanded an early conclusion to the interview.

The revelation came from the interpreter attending the interview, who posted his experience using handle name @Portugueselaozhao on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.

In his post, the interpreter said he was asked to interpret clips of recorded conversations exchanged between Ronaldo and his assistants.

“Cristiano Ronaldo lost his patience, especially after Gao Xiaosong asked for his retirement plan,” @Portugueselaozhao wrote. “Ronaldo feels he’s at the peak of his career and discussion on retirement is way too early, so he asked his assistant to help him end the interview.”

“And when the time was up, Gao insisted on asking the final question, and Ronaldo’s team uttered a dirty word in Portuguese and appeared to be very unpleasant,” the interpreter wrote. He went on to claim that Gao was not important enough to the Portuguese soccer star, suggesting using an attractive female host might be a better choice.

The telling episode has since become a trending topic on Weibo, finally prompting the talk show host to respond.

On Saturday, Gao published a lengthy post arguing against the interpreter. The seasoned host explained that Ronaldo had openly discussed his retirement plans in his past interviews with other western media outlets. “Shooting movies or doing business – Ronaldo has answered this question before,” Gao wrote. “We’ve showed the drafted questions to Ronaldo’s team beforehand and they didn’t object to this question.”

Gao went on to point out that Ronaldo’s team showed up an hour late for the show’s recording, but all their staff waited with patience knowing the soccer star had a busy schedule. “It should’ve been a 45-minute talk show, but the other party called an end to the show at 31 minutes,” Gao wrote. “As a professional host, I asked the last question so that the program could be a finished piece. And Ronaldo answered.”

“The interpreter should comply with his professional code and protect his client’s privacy. I don’t know if others still dare to hire him in the future” Gao wrote. “It’s an insult to Ronaldo to say he needs a beautiful host for an interview.” 

The original post by @Portugueselaozhao has been deleted following Gao's response.

Gao stated that Ronaldo showed sincerity and humor during the interview and the interview was successful. However, the host has suggested postponing the airing of the talk show.