Cristiano Ronaldo

  Cristiano Ronaldo

 However, exceptional talents earn exceptional treatment and the mutual respect between the two men ultimately delayed Ronaldo’s eventual departure from Old Trafford to Real Madrid by a year at least. “The only reason he was sold was because the boy fervently wanted to leave,” Ferguson has since admitted.
“He played that extra season, did fantastically for us, and after the cup final [against Barcelona] he came to me and said: ‘Boss, I want to leave’. I said: ‘Right, you’ve done another year, let me consider it’.
The next day an offer came in for £80 million.” In the 3½ years since Ronaldo left United, he and Ferguson have maintained contact, with the 28-year-old comparing his relationship with the Scot as one a “son has with his father”. On leaving United,
 Ronaldo admitted he wished Ferguson could continue to be his ‘life coach’, yet the strength of their shared admiration was tested in the summer of 2008, when Ferguson visited the player in Lisbon to talk him out of his dream move to Real. It had been a difficult summer.

Ronaldo had described himself as a football ‘slave’ and the United supporters were turning against him, but Ferguson played on the winger’s vanity to keep him at Old Trafford. “Sir Alex told Ronaldo that, if he left at that point, he would forever be regarded as a villain in the eyes of the supporters,” reveals a source close to the United manager.
“But he made it clear that, by giving him and United another season, he would be able to leave as a hero, and the tactic worked because Ronaldo stayed and, to this day, the supporters sing his name.
” Ferguson’s indulgence of Ronaldo was not simply a ploy to keep the player happy, however. It was aimed at coaxing the best out of a prodigious talent whose upbringing in sun-drenched Madeira ensured he would always struggle to adjust to life in Manchester.

“When I arrived, even though I did not want it, he insisted I have No 7 on my shirt,” Ronaldo said. “I was adamant that I did not want it. Then, he sat me down and told me about the history of the No 7. He said, ‘Do you understand what I am trying to say to you? I think you will be worthy of wearing this shirt’.
With that, I understood how much confidence he had in me.
” The turning point in Ronaldo’s United career came in the summer of 2006. Once again,
 Ferguson applied a protective arm around Ronaldo’s shoulder after the player, just 21 at the time, voiced fears that he would be hounded out of the country following his World Cup spat with Wayne Rooney, when a wink in response to the England forward’s dismissal against Portugal prompted hysteria. Ferguson, knowing that Rooney and Ronaldo’s friendship ruled out any squad disharmony, reassured Ronaldo that United would protect him.

 The manager’s decision to sell Ruud van Nistelrooy to Real later that summer also played to Ronaldo’s development, with Ferguson aware that the Dutch forward, who had clashed with Ronaldo on the training ground, was a suffocating presence around his emerging star.
From that point on, Ronaldo was a player transformed. Prior to 2006, he had scored 27 goals in three seasons, yet he delivered 91 in the three campaigns before his departure.
With Real, he has improved again, scoring 182 goals in 179 games, and Ferguson admits that Ronaldo’s stratospheric rise was never in doubt.
 “He’s a fantastic player,” Ferguson said. “I knew he would improve tremendously because he was still young when he left us.
But it was obvious he was going to be the top player in the world. He is pivotal to everything Real Madrid do.”