CRISTIANO RONALDO used to get bullied by two Manchester United legends in training who smashed him and made him “almost cry”.
The Portuguese superstar, 38, is currently playing for Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr after his controversial exit from the Red Devils in December.
That was the second time that he left Old Trafford having first starred for the club from 2003 to 2009.
During that period he helped the club to three Premier League titles, the Champions League and the Fifa Club World Cup.
Following his departure to Real Madrid, the forward went from strength-to-strength and continues to break records on an almost monthly basis for both club and country.
But it has been revealed previously that Sir Alex Ferguson wanted to toughen him up after he was signed from Sporting Lisbon 20 years ago.
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Now Rio Ferdinand, the ex-England and United defender, has opened up on the brutality.
Speaking to Australian radio show Kyle and Jackie O, he said: “Me and a guy called Quinton Fortune … we used to take the mick out of him a lot.
“[Ronaldo] was a lot younger than us at the time – borderline bullying, maybe, but it was just trying to, like, build him, build that resilience.”
He also opened up on the epic table tennis battles he and Ronaldo had at the Carrington training ground in which ended up with the latter on the verge of tears every time he lost.
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Ferdinand added: “We used to play every other day before training, as part of the warm-up. I used to smash him all over the place.
“He did beat me … it was me and him, [ranked] one and two, like [Roger] Federer and [Rafael] Nadal.
“If it was televised, it would have broken records. He used to, like, almost cry and that, he was so competitive.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
