Ronaldo-less Madrid fails to attract huge attendance at La Liga

Effects of Cristiano Ronaldo leaving has started to take a toll on Real Madrid, as the Los Blancos had their worst home crowd since before the CR7 era.

The post-Ronaldo era at Real Madrid began the way the pre-Ronaldo era ended, with a half-full Santiago Bernabeu. Goals from Dani Carvajal and Gareth Bale secured a winning start in the 2018-19 La Liga season for the 13-time Champions League winners. But the lack of home fans was as conspicuous as the absence of their former talisman.

Just 48,466 people came through the turnstiles for the first home game of the season, which should have attracted both hardcore fans and football tourists to see some of the biggest names in world football.

The last time, Real played in front of such a paltry Santiago Bernabeu crowd was the final home game of the 2008-09 season, which came during a five-game losing streak that was started by the historic 6-2 Clasico defeat to Pep Guardiola's Barcelona, who had both Thierry Henry and Lionel Messi scoring braces.

Following the crushing defeat, Los Blancos slumped to second place in the table and decided to take the risk of breaking the world transfer record to sign a certain Portuguese attacker from Manchester United.

Ronaldo moved to Madrid in June 2009, spending the next nine seasons at the club where he won four Champions League titles but just two Ligas.

With Ronaldo now gone to Juventus, fans failed to turn up for Madrid's first game of the season, with the five-time Ballon d'Or winner's shadow cast large over the empty seats in the stadium.