Manchester United Forum

[The_Mancunian_Red]

has revealed the debt he owes Sir Alex Ferguson for persuading him to stay at Old Trafford and turning him into the world's best player.

There can have been few more significant decisions in Fergie's tenure at Manchester United than the one that took him and chief executive David Gill to Portugal last summer for a crisis meeting with the winger.

While Ronaldo now claims there was no lingering problem with United teammate Wayne Rooney after their World Cup spat, the reality is that the 22-year-old Portuguese star was ready to turn his back on United.
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Fergie and Gill sought to assure him in Lisbon that he could cope with the inevitable hostility awaiting him in England from rival fans.

And the Player of the Year, who has been dazzling this season and scored 25 goals in total, has not forgotten just how much he owes Fergie for persuading him to face his critics.

"The manager has helped me more than I could ever have imagined," said Ronaldo. "I am at this club for him and because of him. He has made me the player I am today.

"There were difficult times last summer but I gained a lot from the World Cup experience. It made me stronger mentally and after speaking to the manager I knew I could handle it."

And on the eve of today's FA Cup Final, when Fergie will be looking to Ronaldo to inspire the current United side to his fourth domestic Double, the 65-year-old Scot reflected on the significance of his trip to Portugal.

"Obviously we had concerns after the World Cup," said Ferguson, who has again underlined his supreme man-management skills. "Going to Portugal was important to convince Cristiano there was no problem with him coming back to England.

"Once he got back he set about dealing with an issue which every great United player has had to deal with - opposing fans booing you.

"But he dealt with that and has developed as we thought he would. When we signed him as an 18-year-old, we could see his potential and that's what we're realising now."

And Ferguson has challenged Ronaldo to show he really is one of the greatest talents in the game's history.

After watching Ronaldo collect his Football Writers' Player of the Year trophy, Fergie said: "I hope he goes on to develop himself to be established as the best footballer in the world.

"To do it for a long time is another challenge for the boy and I think he will do that."

The sight of Ronaldo joining in the cheeky anthem United fans have coined for him at last Sunday's title party said everything about the bond that has developed between them.

As he sang 'He plays on the left, he plays on the right, that boy Ronaldo makes England look s****', any questions about his loyalty, not to mention his command of English, were dispelled.

And it is not just Fergie to whom Ronaldo feels he owes a special debt. He said: "The opinion of the United fans was the most important thing to me and they have been amazing, not just towards me but the whole team."

SORRY JOSE, THE FINAL WORD GOES TO UNITED..

BOTH FA Cup Final teams have good omens on their side as they head to the new Wembley.

They were the last two teams to win the trophy at the old stadium, United in 1999 and Chelsea in 2000 - when United snubbed the competition to take part in the World Club Championship.

If previous FA Cup meetings are a guide, United will have the upper hand. They have been drawn against each other nine times with Chelsea winning just once - in 1950.
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[The_Mancunian_Red]

Ronaldo again fails true test of greatness: making an impact when it matters most
By James Lawton, Chief Sports Writer
Published: 21 May 2007

It was billed as a coronation for Manchester United and the most celebrated of their stars in the new Wembley fantasy park (sorry, that should be football stadium despite the dismaying quality of the pitch and most of the Cup final). Instead it was the big reality check for all those who forget some of the basic rules of measuring greatness.

Yes, we're speaking - and without apology - of the latest farcical denouement of some of the more hysterical claims on behalf of Cristiano Ronaldo.

For many Ronaldo was the great magnet of a match invested with the challenge of properly launching another phase in the life of football's ultimately vaunted piece of real estate. But then we have to forget the weight of history; Chelsea full-backs Paul Ferreira and Wayne Bridge - neither of whom has ever been mistaken for the new Maldini - didn't need the help of such mystique to render Ronaldo so anonymous Sir Alex Ferguson, once again in a big match, must have been tempted to form a search party.

Great players - and Ronaldo has already been categorised as such even to the point of being compared to Pele and George Best - embrace such games as Saturday's because they are the purpose of their lives.

Cutting it against some of the Premiership's mediocrities is one thing; taking hold of the big stage, and the toughest opponents in the land, should be a progressively routine test of players who announce they are going to be remembered through the football ages.

Now those who so enthusiastically announced that Ronaldo had already arrived on such a plane surely have enough evidence to think again; to think, mostly that is, of the criteria of performance which separates in the all-time ratings those of the outstanding natural gifts with which Ronaldo undoubtedly has been bombarded and the others who also have the nerve and the vision to make them work under the greatest pressure.

It is in the second category that we find the Bests and the Peles. It is the first where Ronaldo remains anchored by his failure to confidently negotiate the end of a season in which he had received unprecedently lavish acclaim.

Where was Ronaldo when Didier Drogba, who was one minority choice for the honours which were heaped upon the Portuguese 22-year-old, scored his 33rd goal in all competition so magnificently in the last minutes of extra time? Where was he when Paul Scholes, the game's best player by some distance, and the only one who seemed to know the value of turning on the ball in a truly positive frame of mind, was desperately trying to bring drive and order to his team?

He was where he was rooted throughout the entire match. In the margins. Tepid, without influence or a hint of spark, he was the same Ronaldo who was so becalmed in United's catastrophic performance in the San Siro a few weeks ago.

Ronaldo's crime was not in having a bad game. It can happen to any mortal and ever so occasionally even a great player. No, Ronaldo's offence went rather deeper than some fleeting dip in form and commitment. It was the body language of discouragement that screamed out of him from the moment Chelsea's defence made it clear there would no easy pickings, no suicidal lungings announcing susceptibility to his pace and balance, no hint of fear induced by the tide of wild and sometimes risible praise.

Comparisons? They came like a flock of starlings over the ragged turf. Johan Cruyff, who scored 33 goals for the Netherlands in 48 games, once masterminded a victory over England at the old Wembley with a series of sublime breaks and passes. Some observers swear he never crossed the half-way line.

George Best, whose finest moment at Wembley came with a European Cup-winning goal strike against Benfica, scored a goal against England at the old stadium that left Nobby Stiles - the man who tamed Eusebio - and Gordon Banks in his wake. Later Stiles reflected: "I shall never forget that goal because it said everything about George's career and life. There he was, with the world falling on his head, drinking, losing touch with what had made his name so brilliantly, but still able to do something that made the little hairs on the back of your neck stand up. I said to him, 'George, I'll never forget that goal - only you could have scored it.'"

We are talking values here that go beyond a player's age or style or character. We are discussing an endless urge to inflict yourself on great events. Sir Stanley Matthews was a teenager when he first lit up the Potteries - he was 38 when he fashioned the 1953 Cup final forever named in his honour. Pele was 17 when he scored a hat-trick in the World Cup final.

It is only when such standards are equalled that we can rush a 22-year-old through the gates of greatness.

No one would want, or, for the purposes of this argument, suggest that Ronaldo isn't a player both of bewitching possibilities and also a striking reason for United's first Premiership title in four years. No doubt they deserved their title; they played some excellent, expressive football and applied the pressure on Chelsea through the season. But then, just as in the case of their star player, they were maybe not as good as double triumph would have suggested.

United's most consistent performer - when he was free of suspension - was unquestionably Paul Scholes, and the weight of his contribution - unrecognised at award ceremonies - had never been more explicit than on Saturday. He set a rhythm and a level of professionalism which was never matched by Michael Carrick or Darren Fletcher, and until it is United cannot assume any easy ability to march beyond the restrictions placed upon by them by Chelsea in the last of the domestic action.

United's challenge is the same one that faces the sometimes luminous Cristiano Ronaldo. It is to improve at the critical point of delivering performance when it matters most. Without this, talk of greatness in a team or an individual will always be some kind of folly. Here, especially in the case of Ronaldo, it was as bad as it can be. All the evidence said, after all, that it was a ridiculous misapprehension.
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[The_Mancunian_Red]

Ron's having a ball
Stuart Brennan
3/ 7/2007

IT WAS perhaps the worst piece of career advice ever given out by a school teacher: "Forget the ball, the ball will not feed you."

The unwilling recipient of that poor piece of fortune telling was none other than Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, Manchester United superstar, now on a reported £125,000 a week, and one of the world's best footballers.

Ronaldo's own revelation comes in a new book to be launched by the Reds star next week, entitled "Moments; The Way I Feel."

Not an autobiography, the book gives an insight into the Portuguese ace's life and inner thoughts - and it sheds light on a remarkable friendship which the multi-millionaire footballer struck up with a seven-year-old victim of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

An extract from the book, published on Ronaldo's agency website, tells of how he has changed little from his school days on the island of Madeira, when he got into trouble for being too fond of his football.

He says of the fifth grade teacher who scolded him for his attachment to his ball: "Today, I cannot stop myself from smiling while recalling her concern whenever I came to class, sometimes late, with the ball in one hand.

"`Ronaldo, forget the ball,' she would say over and over again. `The ball will not feed you. Do not miss classes. School is what really matters to you, not the ball, that will not bring you anything in life.'"

Ronaldo is now one of the Premiership's richest players after inspiring United to last season's Premiership title and lifting both main Footballer of the Year awards.

"Life is full of surprises," continues Ronaldo. "At the time I would listen to her without paying much attention. But today I understand her and, although she keeps on saying to my mother and my aunt that she will never make this type of comment again to a student, I still think she did the right thing and that she must keep on following her belief.

"As a teacher, she did her job, and it was a good piece of advice, as we never know what tomorrow brings. But I never paid much attention."

United teammates have revealed in the past how Ronaldo is rarely seen without a ball.

Earlier this year Patrice Evra told how Ronaldo is rarely separated from a ball.

TV

"He eats with the ball, he watches TV with the ball. He probably even sleeps with the ball," laughed the Reds defender, who suggested that the only way to stop the flying winger was "to kill him."

Ronaldo confesses his obsession: "I cannot help caressing the ball or enjoying juggling. I used to do it when I played in the street, I kept on doing it all throughout my training and I still do it now. And I will keep on doing it.

"This is the real Cristiano Ronaldo. I believe that when people see me on the pitch playing with the ball before the beginning of the warm-up, they may be tempted to think that this is nothing but a charm offensive or showing off.

"If this is what you think then you are wrong, because I do it naturally. Before the matches, both for the club and the national football team, I always have the same routine.

"As soon as the coach reveals the team, I immediately go to the dressing room and start to juggle with the ball.

"We leave to warm-up and while waiting for the physical exercises to start I keep on practising my skills. I take the ball, I pass it under one foot, and then the other, I pick it up, bounce it, in short, I amuse myself with the ball.

"I do it just for pleasure, but there is also another reason - to put an end to any tension before the match.

"My team-mates, in both the club and the Portuguese national team, can confirm this, as they know me very well.

"This is the way I have of motivating myself, of relieving the pressure of the match, of calming down, of preoccupying myself."

In the book extract, Ronaldo also talks about his visit to the Indonesian city of Banda Aceh in 2005 six months after it bore the brunt of the horrific tsunami which claimed the lives of 280,000 people. Still waking up from the pain, the population received me with a smile and with extraordinary kindness," says Ronaldo.

Tragedy

"I thanked God for somehow being able to help them, even though only for a moment, to forget about the tragedy.

"I laughed with them, encouraged them, comforted them. And they paid me back with their eyes sparkling with hope for the future and they were determined to follow me to every location I was going to visit, be it on foot, bus or motorcycle.

"It was also here that my second meeting took place with Martunis, a seven-year-old Indonesian boy of great courage, who survived the tsunami all by himself, for 19 days.

"We spent the day together in Banda Aceh and, once again, I was touched by his innocent look, his curiosity, surprise, and admiration, feelings that he was unable to hide.

"I cannot even imagine the suffering he went through during those 19 days when he wandered alone, with no news from his family, having to rely on his survival instinct."

The United star also reveals how he gave the youngster a gift of a mobile phone and his telephone number.

Enthusiasm

"We talked by gestures and with the help of a translator. But he is so shy he barely said a word.

"He immediately asked for my number and we played with the phones right there.

"Everything was new to him. I opened my computer and his eyes opened wide, because it was the first time he had seen something of that kind.

"He was filled with enthusiasm when I showed him some pictures of me and some video games. His eyes were glittering with the sight of so many novelties in such a short time. When the local population saw that we were together, the delirium was immense. All because of him.

"He was the real hero and he continues to be so. He really is an example of courage. Martunis is a little boy that deserves to have everything good in his life and I am sure he is going to be a very happy child."
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[Busby Boy]

Ronaldo interview on today's Football Focus on BBC 1.

[yolkie]

[stretford-end]

[stretford-end]

[stretford-end]

Here is the interview with Ronaldo:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1126121770?bctid=1556197943

Nothing much in there to be honest.
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[stretford-end]

[redphil1957]

One of the things that annoy me more than anything about the whole Ronaldo debate is how everybody is prepared to judge without knowing the man personally. He has always talked about his desire to play in Spain, he has had a bombardment of pro-madrid press with the promise of untold riches both for him and for the club he would leave, he has had his international manager whispering in his ear about opportunites that only come around once etc. Lots of pressure, lots of conflicting influences and emotions. Of course it would be great if he felt the same as we fans all do about the club but that would be unlikely with his background. I hope he stays at least a couple of years but whatever I refuse to viciously condem a player who has given so much pleasure since he joined.
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Bestie was my hero

[stretford-end]

[United In Red]

Yes, i am having a late-night rant.

Ronaldo.
Let's get his ass out the door, take the money and buy either Huntelaar or Berbatov...at least they might appreciate playing for Manchester United.

[stretford-end]

Just updated the blog with a Ronaldo Ballon D'or post - let me know what you think
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[stretford-end]

Latest comment on the blog - Torres should win it ahead of Ronaldo..........

I don't know.
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[Red Devil 1]

Ronaldo seriously needs to sort out his attitude at the moment in my view.

His antics over the last couple of games just haven't been on, throwing his hands up at team-mates who have the audacity to play him a bad pass etc..showing the ref where he's been kicked by pulling up his shorts etc...you get my drift.