GUILLEM BALAGUE’S NEW book is about Cristiano Ronaldo and some early extracts from it reveal that his early days at Manchester United were tough and uncompromising.
In the dressing-room, his confident demeanour made him an easy target for the more experienced members of the team who ridiculed his clothes, his hair, his skin and his teeth.
In training too, Balague says, the Portuguese youngster was worked hard in order to secure the respect of the more senior players.
Finally, during a specific routine called a rondo – essentially piggy-in-the-middle – Ronaldo began to excel and used his tricks and ball-playing ability to evade challenges, making those senior players look like fools.
“You’d think, ‘He’s taking the mickey out of me here”, recalls Gary Neville.
Still, there was one player irked by Ronaldo’s presence and his reluctance to play a pass or a cross.
Ruud van Nistelrooy was used to the service of David Beckham, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes in previous years but the cocky youngster’s self-serving approach to the game was irritating the Dutch striker.
And it came to a head at the end of the 2005/2006 season.
They had a couple of arguments,” remembers Rio Ferdinand.
“Ruud Van Nistelrooy kicked him one time and after that I kicked Ruud just to protect Ronnie a little bit and Ruud swung a punch at me and he missed.”
After the incident, van Nistelrooy never played for the club again and was sold to Real Madrid that summer.
The book also reveals how Sir Alex Ferguson vented at Ronaldo when United played at Benfica in December 2005.
He was substituted after 67 minutes and replaced by Ji-Sung Park after trying to prove his worth to the baying home support.
“Who do you think you are? Trying to play by yourself? You’ll never be a player if you do this”, Ferguson is alleged to have shouted.
And Ronaldo started to cry.
