SIR ALEX FERGUSON believes Cristiano Ronaldo will be worthy of the honour of becoming Manchester United’s first European Footballer of the Year for nearly 40 years.
Ronaldo is joint favourite with AC Milan’s Brazilian Kaka for the Ballon D’Or which will be announced this weekend ahead of the awards ceremony in Paris tomorrow evening.
United are ready to hire a private jet to fly him out to the French capital and back tomorrow in order to keep him fresh for Monday’s Premier League clash against Fulham.
Ferguson believes Ronaldo’s achievements for United and Portugal deserve to see him follow in the footsteps of the club’s previous winners of the prestigious prize, the ‘holy trinity’ of Denis Law (1964), Bobby Charlton (1966) and George Best (1968).
The United boss said: “Cristiano is definitely one of the best players in the world, there is no question of that, and he has had a fantastic year at club and international level. He must have some chance of winning and it would be tremendous for the boy.
“He puts in so much practice in his drive to be at the top of his profession. He doesn’t really need any endorsements from me. I have said time and again that he is a marvellous player and he gets all the endorsements he needs with his performances.
“His improvement can be measured in two ways. His decision-making is very good now as opposed to when he was a young kid. And his goalscoring record has improved each year, which is a terrific sign.
“He influences games not only for us but for Portugal. He has a phenomenal goalscoring record for his country – it is almost one in every two games, which is an amazing record for a young player. He has already got 11 goals for us this season and we’ve only just reached December. That augurs well that he can go on and beat last season’s tally of 23.”
United director Charlton said Ferguson’s side would not be Premier League champions without Ronaldo.
“Ronaldo’s influence in United winning the title was decisive,” said Charlton. “He changed the course of matches all by himself.”
The Golden Ball, organised by French magazine France Football, is open for the first time to any player on earth, not only in Europe.
Charlton said: “It was in 2007 that he really imposed himself at the front of the stage and became this source of inspiration not just in England or Portugal but elsewhere.
He has this something that distinguishes a Golden Ball winner from simply a super player. I will be accused of nepotism, of course, because he is one of our players.
“But the kid you see kicking a ball in the street dreams he is Cristiano Ronaldo and not only in Manchester. He wants to dribble, shoot and score like him.” Ronaldo is also on a shortlist of three with Kaka and Barcelona’s Lionel Messi for FIFA’s world player of the year award.
And he will be back in tandem in United’s attack with Wayne Rooney, who will return from an ankle injury against Fulham on Monday. Gary Neville is set to make his first-team comeback after an eight-month injury lay-off in the Champions League group game against Roma on December 12.
That match was rendered meaningless by United’s 2-1 Champions League victory over Sporting Lisbon on Wednesday, which Fulham manager Lawrie Sanchez believes has given him a clue to a successful raid on Old Trafford.
Sanchez is convinced the only way Fulham can get anything from the visit is to launch an all-out attack from the off. “If you sit back against them you will get what you deserve so you have to go and make a game of it,” said Sanchez. “Sporting showed you can get at them and I will set my team up to have a go.”
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário