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Cristiano Ronaldo went on to win three Premier League titles, a Champions League, an FA Cup and two League Cups during his first spell at Manchester United.
Cristiano Ronaldo at Manchester United (Instagram)
Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the greatest-ever footballers, joined Manchester United in 2003 at the age of 18. Legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson signed Ronaldo, landing the Portuguese sensation from Sporting CP. Ronaldo enjoyed a glorious stint at Old Trafford with Ferguson at the helm.
Under Ferguson, Ronaldo went on to win three Premier League titles, a Champions League, an FA Cup and two League Cups during his first spell with the Red Devils. He also bagged his first Ballon d’Or trophy before joining Real Madrid in 2009. Despite its glamour and success, Ronaldo’s association with Manchester United had its fair share of challenges.
In an interview with BBC Sport, as part of a documentary titled, Sir Alex, Cristiano Ronaldo’s former Manchester United teammate Rio Ferdinand recalled how the legendary manager once ripped into the Portuguese star.
“We’d been to Portugal and played a couple of games, and he hadn’t played well, Cristiano, because he was young, he tried too hard. I remember we played Benfica, and the manager ripped into Cristiano. ‘Who d’you think you are? You’re coming in here trying to prove to everybody who you think you are, you think you’re a superstar’. And I remember Cristiano in tears in the changing room. And I was like, ‘This manager doesn’t care, man. He doesn’t care who you are,'” Rio Ferdinand recalled, as per GOAL.
Rio Ferdinand went on to credit Sir Alex Ferguson’s approach as he felt that it played a key role in building up Cristiano Ronaldo as one of the most prolific goal scorers in football history. “But then look at the player that he became. He needed moments like that. And the manager knew that he could be soft and nice with him, but he had to be hard as well to get him to where he got to — the world’s best player when he left,” the former English defender added.
Cristiano Ronaldo returned to Manchester United on a two-year contract in 2021. The second stint did not turn out to be a fruitful one. Despite scoring important goals in his comeback season, Manchester United struggled and the two parties agreed to mutually terminate his contract.
The move came following the Portuguese talisman’s bombshell interview with Piers Morgan in which criticised the club and the-then Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag.