A lot of players at Manchester United tend to go two ways when leaving Old Trafford. They either do not make it at the club and get sold to a club for whom a former United player now manages, or they feel that to be right at the top they need to join Spanish club Real Madrid. Most that head in the direction of Madrid are normally wrong, in a four year period a Real Madrid player may end up with one or two trophies, five or six managers, and a good six months warming the bench.
Such is the fluctuation of business at Real Madrid these days that one could really see Cristiano Ronaldo returning to Old Trafford for another bite of the apple. The former United winger started well over there, but soon got injured and is now on the wrong end of some poor form. The Spanish fans are far less forgiving than us British, suffer poor form, play badly for a few weeks and they forget who you are. It’s happened with Kaka, Ronaldo (The Brazilian), Van Nistelrooy and probably many others.
In fact the only players that the fans ever remained truly loyal to were that of Raul and Roberto Carlos, anyone else was just part and parcel of the same game that you would never get at Manchester United. Cristiano Ronaldo is still young at 25, his best form possibly yet to come but he needs to be at a club that can offer stability and not a club which will offload you as soon as the next footballing star from Brazil is spotted on a beach in Rio.
Manchester United has everything a top class footballer needs, Ronaldo will not be enjoying the press taking part in every training session and he certainly won’t be enjoying the white flags every time Real Madrid drop two or three points. The grass is not always greener on the other side but we can say this, the grass is definitely greener at Old Trafford than it is at the Bernabeu.
Cristiano Ronaldo has swapped his hotpants for something even skimpier in the new campaign for Emporio Armani Underwear.
The Real Madrid footballer has replaced David Beckham as the face - and body - of the Italian brand.
Never the modest type, Ronaldo appears to have embraced his new modelling career with gusto, striking a series of moody poses and showing off a six-pack which would make Becks green with envy.
The 24-year-old reportedly maintains his chiseled abs by performing 3,000 sit-ups a day.
Giorgio Armani was full of praise for the "sexy" sportsman.
"Cristiano is a great-looking young man with the perfect physique of an athlete," Armani said.
"For me, he is the essence of youth - spontaneous, exciting and a real maverick. It is for his energy that I have chosen Cristiano to become the new face of Armani Jeans and Emporio Armani Underwear - for his youthful, exciting, and, yes, sexy attitude."
In the ad for Armani Jeans, also in moody black and white, Ronaldo can barely keep the jeans on.
He said: "Giorgio Armani is a legend in the fashion world and I have long been a fan of his work. I am very pleased with the pictures we have done together - they are certainly striking and are full of attitude and a spirit I can relate to."
The footballer's fashion sense is legendary and was the cause of much hilarity when he was at Manchester United.
His style crimes included metallic hotpants and a love of baby pink. When he was ridiculed for wearing tiny shorts and tucking a pink flower behind his ear last summer, he retorted: "I don't know why people are so interested in what I wear on holiday. Men wear pink these days. OK, not many men were flowers, but it's good to be different."
Ronaldo joins Megan Fox, the Transformers actress, unveiled this week as the female face of Emporio Armani.
Former Real Madrid Lorenzo Sanz has lashed out at Florentino Perez's current regime.
Sanz slammed the massive spending by Florentino during the summer market.
"Under me, Real became a great team at a much lower cost than what is done now. In my day we paid 5,500 million pesetas for Anelka, but we sold him for 6,000 the following year. The figures of Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka are dizzy. No player is worth that money," Sanz told terra.es.
"I read on the cover of a newspaper that Cristiano would generate 80 million euros a year at Madrid. This is something no-one can believe. Either we are all fools or Ronaldo is an idiot.
"Ronaldo is shown in the media like Tarzan in shorts!
"He must get up in he morning, see himself on the front pages of the newspapers, and believe he is Superman or God."
The most expensive signing in football has said that the pressure does not really bother him...
After reportedly being subjected to persistent and unrelenting harassment by the Osasuna fans in last weekend's match at the Reyno de Navarra, Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo has played down talk that the verbal abuse is getting under his skin.
Subjected to insults such as "Cristiano, die!" in his first visit to Pamplona, Ronaldo has faced hostile, even intimidating atmospheres away from the Bernabeu.
CR9 experienced similar insults in the match against Barcelona at the Camp Nou, along with a laser pointed directly into his eyes, and missed a golden opportunity to score with just Victor Valdes at his mercy. Similarly, on Sunday, Ronaldo was unable to silence the crowd, exhibiting a number of poor touches and blasting a free kick dreadfully wayward into the stands.
However, the Portuguese phenom has been quick to dispel the notion that the insults are affecting his performance, saying they "go in one ear and out the other", as reported by Spanish sports daily Marca.
The winger also spoke of the huge amount of attention he is garnering as the new face of Real Madrid, commenting: "this has both its positives and its negatives. When we do things well, they applaud us a lot more, but when we do not go out and do what we want, we feel more pressure. Being received with whistles and insults is nothing new for me. After the 2006 World Cup (in which he slotted home a penalty to dump England out of the World Cup) this happened to me in every stadium in England and I ended up being chosen as the best player in the league. It doesn't affect me."
In an interview with the magazine So Foot before signing for Real Madrid, the Portuguese also spoke of this theme. "It does not really matter to me if they insult me...in fact I like it. I love seeing hate in their eyes and seeing the insults. It's not really important. The truth is that many people hate me, but there are many more who like me. I only feel poorly when I play poorly."
Sir Alex Ferguson warns his young forwards that they have some way to go before they can replace the departed Portuguese striker
Even as his team prepare to raise the curtain on the new top-flight season tomorrow, Sir Alex Ferguson remains misty-eyed about the star performer who has left the building.
Other big-name players have departed the Old Trafford stage with barely a pat on the back from Ferguson down the years, but the Manchester United manager continues to shower bouquets on Cristiano Ronaldo.
The context yesterday, before the Community Shield match against Chelsea at Wembley tomorrow, was the size of the task facing Wayne Rooney, in particular, as he looks to lead United into the post-Ronaldo era. For all the varying qualities of Dimitar Berbatov, Michael Owen, Antonio Valencia and others, Rooney appears the most obvious talisman for the new-look United, but Ferguson appeared hesitant at best yesterday when asked whether the England forward was ready to emulate Ronaldo, now at Real Madrid, in making the jump towards the highest echelons.
It was put to Ferguson that three years ago Ronaldo and Rooney were synonymous, two young players, 21 and 20, with immense potential and that, whereas the Englishman has gradually attained or come close to world-class status, his Portuguese team-mate went stratospheric.
Greatness should not be measured in terms of goals alone, but, having scored as many Premier League goals (13) in his first two seasons at United as Ronaldo managed in his first three, Rooney, like everyone else in the English game, was left in Ronaldo’s wake from the start of the 2006-07 campaign, managing 38 goals in 83 league starts as opposed to his team-mate’s incredible haul of 66 in 93.
When Ferguson described Ronaldo recently as “without question the best player in this world of ours — streets ahead of Lionel Messi, streets ahead of Kaká”, it went without saying that he was saying that Real’s £80 million man was streets ahead of anyone he left behind at Old Trafford. That extends to Valencia, who was signed from Wigan Athletic as the closest thing to a direct replacement for the Portugal forward, but Ferguson is expecting big things from the Ecuadorean, a more orthodox threat on the right wing, as well as a great leap forward from Rooney and others.
Ferguson talked of having “bought potential” in the shape of Valencia, a player who, having turned 24 this week, is only six months younger than Ronaldo. He talked, too, of the rich potential of Rooney, Nani, Danny Welbeck and, in particular, Federico Macheda, the 17-year-old Italian forward who, he said, “is going to give me real problems. For his age, he’s exceptional. He’s going to be a top, top player.”
No one at Old Trafford, it seems, though, can yet bear comparison to Ronaldo. “Wayne is a totally different type of player to Ronaldo,” Ferguson said. “I don’t think you can compare them. Ronaldo is lightning quick, he has two good feet, he is magnificent in the air, and what is there left to say about his goalscoring record?
“For any player, whether it is Rooney, Macheda, Welbeck or Nani, all the forwards, they all have to say, ‘Well, this guy was exceptional.’ And the only way any player can achieve an improvement is through practice on the training field, having the desire to improve themselves in every training session. People in our game misread what a training session means. It’s not just to fill your morning or keep you out of the house. It is to improve yourselves as footballers.
“We are lucky that some of the players we have had here, and have at the moment, have that desire to improve all the time. It’s only through training sessions that players can improve.”
What is clear is Ferguson’s belief that Ronaldo rose to greatness through hard work and that nobody, whether it is Rooney, Macheda, Berbatov or Nani, can expect to emulate their former team-mate without total commitment on the training ground.
The other main factor in United’s success in the past three seasons has been a solid defence, but their resources will be stretched as the new campaign begins. Edwin van der Sar is out for ten weeks with a broken finger, while Nemanja Vidic will join Gary Neville and Rafael Da Silva in sitting out the Barclays Premier League opener against Birmingham City next weekend.
Ben Foster is expected to start in goal for United tomorrow, with Rio Ferdinand marshalling John O’Shea, Jonny Evans and Fabio Da Silva in a makeshift back four that Chelsea, under new management yet again, will be eager to exploit.
Though Ronaldo paid only £3.5million for the sevenbedroom Cheshire mansion, there are reports that new City defender Kolo Toure has already offered £5.5m for it - which suggests that Ronnie is leaving some of his ex-girlfriends there.
How could Ronaldo's house have gone up £2m in value during a recession? Mine's gone down £2m - and I only paid £80k for it.
Alex Ferguson lives only a mile away from Ron's pad, which gave the United boss the opportunity to keep a watchful eye on his star player's nocturnal activities - at least until someone stole his binoculars.
Ronnie's former Old Trafford teammate Carlos Tevez has also lodged a bid but is naturally disturbed by the number of mirrors in the house, most with love-bites on them.
Emmanuel Adebayor and Gareth Barry have also made offers for the house, while Stephen Ireland has offered to paint it.
Which player will buy Ronnie's house (Hills): Evens E Adebayor, 4-1 K Toure, C Tevez, 5-1 G Barry, 8-1 Man United player, 16-1 J Lescott, 50-1 J Terry.
There are new claims in Spain that Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo has committed to a pre-contract with Real Madrid.
Sport reported yesterday that Jorge Mendes, the Manchester United forward’s agent, has signed a long-term agreement with Real Madrid worth about £91 million. The deal reportedly includes a penalty clause that would force Ronaldo and his agent to pay Real €20 million (about £18 million) if he does not appear at the Bernabéu at the start of next season.
Whether such a “penalty clause” would be enforceable is another matter.
The Times says a further wrinkle is that this supposed contract was signed with Ramón Calderón, who resigned as president of Real two weeks ago. Whether it would be valid now is anyone’s guess.
Cristiano Ronaldo has spoken of his pride at hitting a century of goals for Manchester United.
Ronaldo has actually reached 101 after scoring twice in yesterday's 5-0 hammering of Stoke at Old Trafford.
With the rumblings of summer discontent and dreams of a move to Real Madrid set aside for now at least, the Portugal winger is committed to helping United defend their Premier League and Champions League trophies.
And, after six seasons with the Red Devils, he has enough knowledge to recognise the significance of his latest milestone.
'I feel very proud,' said Ronaldo. 'One hundred goals is a great achievement. I have 101 for this club now. This is my sixth season here so I think that is fantastic.'
After scoring 43 times last term, Ronaldo has reached nine this year, a remarkable effort given his season did not start until mid-September after an ankle operation.
( Cristiano Ronaldo has now scored 101 goals for Manchester United )
And, after six seasons with the Red Devils, he has enough knowledge to recognise the significance of his latest milestone.
'I feel very proud,' said Ronaldo. 'One hundred goals is a great achievement. I have 101 for this club now. This is my sixth season here so I think that is fantastic.'
After scoring 43 times last term, Ronaldo has reached nine this year, a remarkable effort given his season did not start until mid-September after an ankle operation.
As Alex Ferguson pointed out, none of the previous seven had been a free-kick.
Typically, Ronaldo scored two to make amends, the first swerving viciously past Thomas Sorensen even if the Stoke 'keeper should still have done better.
Ronaldo's second effort completed United's biggest win of the season so far and allowed them to leapfrog back above Arsenal after the Gunners` shock home defeat to Aston Villa.
'It is always important to win games,' said the Portugal international. 'Last week we lost at Arsenal and we wanted to change that. Everyone tried to do their best and in the end I thought we did very well. We are third in the table now and we need to go on like that.'
Aside from boosting their goal difference, United know the win sent out a signal they do not intend to fall any further behind present pacesetters Chelsea and Liverpool no matter what obstacles are put in their path.
Even without a quartet of injured stars, including Gary Neville, who is out for a fortnight with a groin injury, and Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney, who will both miss England's friendly with Germany in Berlin on Wednesday, United never looked like buckling under Stoke's aerial bombardment.
The hosts were helped by Rory Delap's inability to launch his usual bullet throws due to a combination of a wet surface and the steep slope that runs round Old Trafford about two feet from the touchline.
Once Michael Carrick found the net just before the interval, it was merely a question of how many Ferguson's team would score to mark his half a century in the game.
'It was a nice strike,' said Carrick of his tenth United goal. 'I managed to turn and get half a yard and just hit through the back of the ball. It's something I would like to do more of because it would be good to get a few goals.'
If Carrick has a tenth of Ronaldo's United total, Danny Welbeck has a tenth of Carrick's after scoring his first goal for the club he supported as a boy.
The 17-year-old was still on the bench when record signing Dimitar Berbatov extended the home side's lead four minutes after the restart.
But with victory assured, Ferguson decided to give Welbeck his Premier League debut. And the Longsight-born striker duly obliged, playing a one-two with Manucho before finding the net with an unstoppable 20-yard shot.
'We see it every day in training because Danny is so talented,' said Carrick.
'It is nice for him to produce it on the big stage. His temperament is spot-on so he won't get carried away. He has got a good chance of achieving big things here.'
Local lad Welbeck admitted: 'It is amazing really. For someone coming from Manchester, to come on and score in front of the Stretford End on my debut. It is what every young boy would dream of.
'I have thought about it ever since I started playing football and I can't imagine any better feeling.'
Welbeck wasted no time in watching a replay once he got back into the home dressing room after United's biggest win of the season.
And he has assured the Old Trafford faithful he will not be getting too big for his boots.
'I have seen it quite a few times on video analysis already,' he smiled. 'But it has just made me hungry for more. There is no better experience than to play with top class players every week. I just want to improve as much as I can.
'I am sure I will keep my feet on the ground. I am quite level-headed anyway, so I will just take it in my stride.'
Ferguson will try to patch up his wounded stars ahead of next weekend's trip to Aston Villa, while hoping his fit ones return that way.
Aside from a meeting between Nemanja Vidic's Serbia and Dimitar Berbatov's Bulgaria, of particular concern to Ferguson is Brazil's encounter with Portugal in Brasilia when Ronaldo, Nani and Anderson will be involved.
'God knows what time they will get back from that,' groaned Ferguson, who will not expect to see the trio until Friday morning at the earliest.
Cristiano Ronaldo's agent has further risked upsetting Manchester United fans by angling for a pay rise.
Ronaldo, who earns £120,000 a week, has slowly been coming back to his best form after a summer spent recovering from ankle surgery and trying to engineer a move to Real Madrid.
Now the winger has stunned United by suggesting he should be given a new contract.
'It is normal that a footballer wants a deal to go with his status and one that matches his performances,' a source close to Ronaldo's agent said.
United could face disciplinary action from UEFA after Celtic fans complained of 'sectarian abuse' during last week's Champions League match in Glasgow.
THIS game was both a thrashing and a thriller. At least 80% of the action involved Manchester United making monkeys of the Tigers of Hull, the chasm between the sides seeming as wide as if the visitors were still in League Two. Sir Alex Ferguson was not exaggerating when he suggested it could have finished with the score-board reading 10-1. So how did it end with Cristiano Ronaldo back in his own penalty are, hacking clear, and the nerves of home fans in threads? “We got ourselves in an embarrassing situation,” said Ferguson. He spoke in his “football? bloody hell!” tone of voice.
United were like Monty Brewster in the film Brewster’s Millions, a man who tires of being super-rich and tries to give his fortune away. It was difficult when doing the player ratings for this match to know whether to give Dimitar Berbatov, Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney eights and nines out of ten, or twos and threes. The gilded trio conjured attacking football that was exquisite in conception, vivid in hue and yet their finishing was of the most artisan standard.
That even goes for Ronaldo, who despite getting his 98th and 99th goals wearing the United No 7 jersey squandered double the number of chances he scored. It certainly goes for Rooney, who became the symbol of United’s mounting annoyance as, with the opposition roaring back from 4-1 to 4-3, there was a sudden threat that their wastefulness would have serious consequences. Hull came back to beat Arsenal and won at Tottenham and Newcastle through their adventurousness and, despite this first away defeat of the season, Phil Brown’s team remain irrepressible. “When the score goes to 4-1 you tend to close your eyes but you’ve got to give the players a lot of credit,” Brown said. “The towel never goes in at this club.”
Spirit aside, the ingredients that made Hull’s comeback possible included an inspired substitution by Brown, whose introduction of Bernard Mendy suddenly stretched their opponents down the left flank, a prodigious performance from their goalkeeper, Boaz Myhill, and some defending by United which was suitably horrific given it was the day after Halloween. Ferguson also believed Mike Dean was a factor and had to be restrained by Gary Neville from confronting the official at full-time.
Ferguson felt Dean should have given Michael Turner, already booked, a second yellow card for felling Michael Carrick as United’s midfielder was about to go through on goal, and that Dean was wrong to give the penalty which allowed Geovanni to make it 4-3 when Rio Ferdinand blocked off Mendy with his arm. Ferguson seemed wrong about the Ferdinand incident, correct regarding the Carrick one.
Just as against Chelsea in midweek, Hull were blitzed by an early goal. Beautiful combination play by United saw Gary Neville chip forward to Ronaldo, Ronaldo find Berbatov with a volley using the back of his heel and Berbatov return the ball to the Portuguese with a volley of his own. Ronaldo swivelled on the pass and drilled a perfect shot past Myhill from 18 yards.
Berbatov was chief veterinarian as, for 69 minutes, the Tigers were declawed and muzzled. His causal genius was evident in a succession of moments, least of all when a gorgeously weighted pass allowed Carrick to advance, drive at Paul McShane and hit a lovely left-footer across Myhill and in off the far post.
Another sumptuous move preceded this. Berbatov had got the ball from Ronaldo and Ronaldo from Rooney. It was a counter-attack that began with Vidic hitting a long pass from United’s six-yard box.
United’s third goal dismayed Brown, who prides himself on his team’s acumen at set-pieces. It was so simple, a corner from Rooney and a header by Ronaldo that pinged past Myhill off McShane. Early in the second half Hull conceded again from a corner by Rooney. Ferdinand drew defenders with a near-post run and Vidic, arriving untracked, finished on the volley.
United had already been careless with their finishing on other occasions, notably when Ronaldo smashed wide when teed up by Berbatov, but seemed in minimal danger. It was 4-1, Hull’s goal, a first-half equaliser, coming when Daniel Cousin got across Patrice Evra to score with a perfect glancing header from Andy Dawson’s equally faultless set-piece delivery. But then the madness started.
Rooney miscontrolled a Carrick pass to waste an opportunity to make it 5-1 and Evra lost his senses when caught under a high ball with Mendy closing. His confused header - it was unclear whether the intention was clearance or back pass – plopped up and Mendy lobbed Edwin van der Sar. Racing back to goal, Vidic dived to hook away the ball but not before it crossed the line.
Rooney (twice), Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez all missed easy chances before, amazingly, Geovanni scored his penalty and United found themselves clinging on for the last nine minutes. Rooney blew his bald top, was booked for a high tackle on Turner and fortunate Dean ignored his subsequent show of dissent.
“You’ve got to credit Hull but not taking our chances is the annoying thing. We had 10 or 1 clear chances [in fact I counted 13 not including the goals]. Fritter them away and you almost end up embarrassed,” Ferguson said.
MAN UNITED:Van der Sar 6, Neville 6, Ferdinand 5, Vidic 7, Evra 4, Ronaldo 7, Carrick 7 (Giggs 72min), Anderson 7 (O’Shea 88min), Nani 6 (Tevez 64min), Berbatov 8, Rooney 6.
