Jamie Carragher and Piers Morgan clash over Cristiano Ronaldo defence

Jamie Carragher has described Piers Morgan as “a completely fake person” after the television presenter criticised the former Liverpool player for questioning his support of Cristiano Ronaldo.

The latest exchange follows Ronaldo’s departure from the Portugal camp, with Morgan backing the former Manchester United star alongside his former team-mate Rio Ferdinand. Carragher objected to their defence of Ronaldo and said their personal relationship with him had affected their judgement.

Speaking on The Overlap Daily, Carragher said: “People think getting close to people in the industry is a good thing, but this is where the problem lies.

“People like Piers Morgan and Rio Ferdinand, who have a prominent position in the media whether you like it or not, embarrass themselves with the ridiculous things they say simply because they know Ronaldo. You can know someone and try to protect them, but you cannot defend the indefensible.”

Morgan responded on social media, writing: “So Jamie Carragher doesn’t like the fact that Rio Ferdinand and I defend our friend Cristiano, or as he puts it, defend the indefensible.

“Here’s Jamie Carragher himself defending his friend Luis Suarez after he racially abused Patrice Evra.”

Morgan added: “But when it comes to defending the indefensible, I admit I’ve done it sometimes, Jamie.”

He then referred to a post he had made in 2018, which said: “Jamie Carragher was wrong to spit at that car, but he was no more stupid than the girl’s father, who was filming Carragher while he was driving with his daughter in the car. So I hope Carragher keeps his job.”

Morgan continued: “He’s a brilliant pundit, and he apologised profusely for what he did. The person involved also behaved badly.”

Carragher replied by acknowledging his past support for Suarez had been wrong.

“We backed our team-mate and we were wrong to do that,” he said. “I apologised to Patrice live on air years ago, which later led Liverpool to send him a letter of apology as well. That was the right thing to do.”

Carragher then criticised Morgan’s response to his comments about Ronaldo.

“Your reaction to my simple criticism, when I said that you and Rio side with Ronaldo to the extent that it affects your judgement when discussing him, is embarrassing,” he said.

“You attack people every day, but when it happens to you, you either storm out of the television studio angrily or resort to personal attacks. All of this is to get another interview. What a sycophant.”

Carragher also addressed the incident in which he spat towards a car, saying he had contacted Morgan to thank him for his support. However, he claimed Morgan then tried to invite him on to his television programme to discuss the incident.

“I slightly changed my opinion of you when I realised your support was not as genuine as I initially believed,” Carragher said. “It was all about getting an interview, just as it is with your excessive flattery of Ronaldo and Donald Trump.”

Carragher later shared an image of a newspaper column in which Morgan had previously called Ronaldo a “spoilt brat”, adding: “What a completely fake person.”

Morgan ended the exchange by posting a photograph of himself with Carragher and writing: “My friend, I even took a souvenir picture for you with a fan recently to boost your profile. Show some gratitude!”