Scolari angry at treatment of Ronaldo

STUTTGART, July 7 (Reuters) Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari today slammed jeering of Cristiano Ronaldo as absurd and said other players were far more guilty of diving than his controversial winger.

Scolari, whose team play Germany in Saturday's third-place match, added that Ronaldo had deserved to win the Best Young Player Award at the World Cup finals and predicted a great future for him.

The Manchester United player was jeered throughout the 1-0 semi-final defeat against France on Wednesday, apparently by neutrals at Munich's Allianz Arena.

Scolari blamed English fans resentful at their team's quarter-final defeat by Portugal in which Wayne Rooney was sent off.

The English media alleged that Ronaldo encouraged the referee to send Rooney off.

''What the England fans did was totally absurd,'' said Scolari.

''Any referee who was one metre from that incident would have sent Rooney off. I'm sorry for him because I'm afraid he might be maltreated when he goes back to England.'' Scolari also hinted that French striker Thierry Henry had dived to win the penalty from which Zinedine Zidane scored the only goal of Wednesday's semi-final.

''Cristiano Ronaldo dives, Thierry Henry doesn't,'' said Scolari sarcastically.

''Ronaldo has had a beautiful World Cup.

''He has improved a lot since he went to Manchester United ... and he has improved with the Portuguese national team as well, because of things we've passed on to him.'' ''His game has a characteristic, which is the dribble. If he gets touched, he falls over, which is normal.

''There are people who are much worse (at diving) and who are portrayed as saints,'' added Scolari.

''He's going to become one of the great players, possibly at or before the next World Cup.'' Germany's Lukas Podolski was awarded FIFA's young player award on Friday.

Reuters SY VP0018