Ter Stegen warns Barcelona: “Madrid were more than Ronaldo”

Barcelona cannot afford to think about how Real Madrid's performance in El Clasico will change without Cristiano Ronaldo, says Catalan’s goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen. "I do not focus on a single player, Madrid have very good players with a lot of individual quality," the goalkeeper said in an interview with Club del Deportista. "It's true Cristiano scored many goals and was a very important player for Real Madrid, so of course you will notice his departure from the club. "We will see how it gets solved in the future. The important thing for us is to concentrate on ourselves to have a spectacular season and, with our great team, be better than all others and achieve objectives." "I had been with the club for my whole life. It was my home, my favourite team and in my city. Then Andoni Zubizarreta appeared," he said. "First he got in touch with my representative and then he and I met at a hotel in Germany and he explained what it meant to be a Barca goalkeeper, the history of the club and what they would expect from me. "And he convinced me, with words and with feelings. Zubizarreta is a spectacular person. I had never been to Barcelona and everything he told me he got for me, so I accepted it and took the step for a new stage in my life. I made the right decision." He said: "As someone who wants to play in every game, it was a complicated situation and the competition with Claudio was not easy. "I'm not going to deny there were times when I was thinking about leaving, looking for a solution."

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