Manchester United winger Cristiano Ronaldo believes he should leave the club and play abroad.

The Portugal international has come in for a lot of criticism throughout the World Cup, especially for the role he played in Wayne Rooney's sending-off during the quarter-final against England.

Although the winger denied trying to influence the referee after his club-mate Rooney clashed with Ricardo Carvalho, television cameras later picked up the 21-year-old winking at his bench when the England forward was dismissed.

And after Portugal's 3-1 defeat to hosts Germany in the third-place play-off Ronaldo spoke for the first time about his future.

"I think I should get out of Manchester," he said.

"The circumstances are not right to keep playing in Manchester.

"In two or three days I will decide where to go. I always said I wanted to play in Spain.

"Nobody stood up for me at Manchester, although I did not do anybody any harm."

Ronaldo, a £12.24million signing from Sporting Lisbon in August 2003, has been linked with Real Madrid in the last week and it appears the Bernabeu could be a likely destination.

When new Real manager Fabio Capello was asked about Ronaldo he said: "He is a Manchester United player.

"Everyone wants to come to play here and I think he really wants to and this is good news for me.

"We will have to wait and see but at the moment I cannot say anything."