ANTHONY ELANGA has revealed the great advice he received from Cristiano Ronaldo during their time shared at Manchester United.
The arm round the shoulder came when Elanga missed a decisive penalty in United’s FA Cup shoot-out defeat to Middlesbrough in 2022.
The then 19-year-old sent his spot kick over the bar to hand the Championship side an 8-7 victory on penalties following a 1-1 draw after 120 minutes.
Ronaldo also failed to convert his penalty awarded during the first 90 minutes.
Elanga told The Times: “I’ve always been someone who wants to find that extra percentage to improve.
“Having Ronaldo come in, I tried to take some chapters out of his book and try and form it into mine.
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“There was a time when I missed a penalty against Middlesbrough and after that he kept speaking to me.
“He told me, ‘It’s not the end of the world, I’ve missed loads before and you’ve shown character and professionalism taking one at your age.
“I took that on board and that’s been really helpful.”
Elanga came up through United’s youth system having joined the academy at 11 years old.
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He was given his first-team debut at United by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at the end of the 2020-21 season.
And he soon won the faith of Solskjaer’s successor, Ralf Rangnick.
But he struggled to assert himself in Erik ten Hag’s first team, and left for Forest last July in a £15m move.
He has impressed fans at the City Ground, scoring five goals and assisting seven more in 28 games across all competitions.
Elanga played a crucial role in Forest’s 2-1 Premier League victory over United in December, but was on the losing side when the pair met in the FA Cup at the City Ground on Wednesday.
Meanwhile Ronaldo’s exit was much more controversial.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner hit out at United’s young players in that infamous bombshell interview with Piers Morgan.
He said: “It’s a little bit shame that the young players don’t follow the best examples in front of their eyes and if they don’t at least copy what you did, for me, it’s kind of weird.
“They don’t care, some yes but most of them no. But for me it’s not surprising because they’re not going to have longevity in their careers. It’s impossible.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
