ACCORDING to keeper Lee Grant, all of his Manchester United team-mates refused to eat dessert in the team hotel on the eve of Cristiano Ronaldo’s debut last week.
Apparently, they saw Ronaldo eating quinoa and avocado and decided to follow his healthy-eating lead and didn’t have their usual pudding.
That story had the ring of truth about it. I’d have been the same if Ronaldo had walked into my dressing room.
In fact, if I saw Ronaldo eating horses**t for a pre-match meal, I’d eat horses**t too!
Everyone knows how well Ronaldo looks after himself.
God, we saw it when he ripped off his shirt after scoring for Portugal against the Republic of Ireland and breaking the all-time international goalscoring record the other week.
I mean, as professional footballers, we’re not in bad shape but that was talked about a lot. Everyone was jealous of that six pack.
If Ronaldo becomes your team-mate, it’s not as if you’re going to imagine that you could be as good as him – but you would witness his professionalism up close and want to emulate everything he does, to make yourself as good as you can be.
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If Ronaldo gets in for training at 8am, I’d be in for training at 8am. If he left at 7pm, I’d leave at 7pm.
There are plenty of big names in that United dressing room but Ronaldo is the elite of the elite and I reckon they would all be in awe of him.
Maybe one or two players would have tried to act cool and style it out when he arrived, but what’s the point?
For the first few weeks at least, you are just going to be a fanboy around him.
I’m a pretty self-confident and assertive bloke but if Ronaldo came in and said hello to me, I’d have been mumbling and dribbling down my chin.
When I attended The Sun’s Who Cares Wins awards the other night, I met David Beckham for the first time and that was similar.
Especially as he came over to me and said: “Hello Troy, how are you doing?”
I just thought, “How does he even know my name?” This is the bloke who scored that free-kick against Greece to send England to the World Cup when I was a kid.
This was the bloke who wore adidas Predators, so we all wore adidas Predators.
I played in the Premier League for a good few years and I’m used to a certain amount of attention myself.
But that doesn’t make any difference when you’re confronted by a Beckham or a Ronaldo.
There were a few pundits wondering whether Ronaldo would genuinely improve United, whether he could still make a serious difference in the Premier League.
I did wonder as much myself but, after watching the 4-1 win over Newcastle, I wanted to slap myself for blasphemy.
The way Ronaldo sniffed out the first goal, and that burst of pace for his second goal, told you all you need to know.
This is one of the greatest players of all time. The greatest I’ve ever seen.
I would pick him ahead of Lionel Messi if I had to make a choice, because of the way he improved and almost reinvented himself as a centre forward – and because he has challenged himself in so many different leagues.
Ronaldo is smarter and more mature now and he’s clearly still the ultimate pro. His new United team-mates will recognise that Ronaldo has a higher profile than anyone else – even Paul Pogba – and Ronaldo will recognise that himself.
He will be permitted to have a certain amount of ego. The guy has scored almost 800 goals for club and country.
If he makes a crucial error, a few team-mates might tell him ‘Come on, Ron’, but they are hardly going to say, “You’re f****** s**t mate.”
To some extent, he will be one of the lads before long. They will get used to him being around.
As players they will all back themselves to be worthy of being in the same team as Ronaldo and they will all be trying to raise their standards.
There will be some opposition teams who will see Ronaldo in the tunnel and be intimidated – he will add to United’s aura.
Although if you are a defender and you are up against him, you are sure to raise your game.
Every pro wants to test themselves against the very best and you don’t want to be humiliated by him and end up as the fall guy in an internet meme.
If I had to make a prediction, then I still don’t think United will win the title this season.
I reckon there could be as few as six or seven points separating the top four but I still think Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool might all have the edge on them.
But Ronaldo is certain to bring the best out of his team-mates. Even if it means them forsaking a slice of apple pie on a Friday night.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
