Cristiano Ronaldo left Manchester United in 2009 as one of the best players in world football, but he wasn’t always that good.
For Cristiano Ronaldo, there was a great deal of development from arriving as a skilful, exciting winger to scoring 42 goals in 49 games during the 2007/08 season.
During this year, Ronaldo formed arguably the Premier League’s greatest ever trio, alongside Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez.
Sir Alex Ferguson has been lauded by Ronaldo through the years for his role in developing him as a player; however, it is equally down to the hard work of the legendary forward.
Ronaldo was famously an incredible trainer, being the first to arrive and last to leave; however, Paul Scholes thinks one game in particular taught the Portuguese hero a key lesson
Paul Scholes says two Italian legends made Cristiano Ronaldo
Ronaldo is a United legend, that much is indisputable; however, he had to work for that status, once being a player who frustrated.
Speaking on ‘The Good, The Bad and The Football’ podcast this week, Scholes picked out one game against AC Milan in the 2004/05 season, which taught Ronaldo lessons that saw him improve tenfold.
“The defining moment for Cristiano was in the Champions League, and he was playing against Maldini. Best ever.
“He’s still very young. His first season, I can’t remember, but it took him a little time to get used to it. He played against Maldini and Gattuso.
“He [Gattuso] just kept running over to that side and taking the ball off him. It wasn’t a standout performance, but I think from that day, he learned that at some point, he’s gonna have to pass the ball.”
“He thought, ‘I thought I’m just gonna take the ball down, go past everybody,’ and it’s Maldini, and Gattuso keeps splitting over.
“Just pass it, but he didn’t do it. He wanted to do something different. He needed to show everyone how good he was.”
Ronaldo learned that his team was his strength, and it is hardly a surprise that he evolved as a player and ended up the top three players of all time that we all know.
- READ MORE: Who is Cristiano Ronaldo? Meet one of football’s most iconic names and undisputed Man Utd legend
Cristiano Ronaldo got Maldini back in 2007
Ronaldo first faced off against Maldini when he was just a teenager in 2004/05, as United were in a rebuild.
This meant it would have been no surprise that the brilliant Maldini and Gattuso would outperform the young Ronaldo.
However, in 2007, Ronaldo met Milan and these two Italians again, this time, in the Champions League semi-final, and he scored, proving he had learned from the previous meeting.
Without learning these lessons from the world’s best players in various positions, Ronaldo might not have become the player he did.
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