MANCHESTER UNITED legend Cristiano Ronaldo’s career changed forever and put him on the path to superstardom after a disastrous performance against AC Milan in 2005.
Ronaldo, 39, joined United in 2003 at the age of 18 years old from Sporting Lisbon and struggled to adapt to his new environment in the Premier League due to his lack of physicality and end product.
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Fellow Man Utd greats Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt still remember CR7’s rough start to life at Old Trafford that “frustrated the life” out of them and other esteemed team-mates.
And there was one Champions League match against Milan at the San Siro that saw the star forward getting dominated by Gennaro Gattuso and Paolo Maldini so much that his peers lost their patience.
The Red Devils suffered a heartbreaking elimination in the Last 16 as they lost 1-0 across both legs.
According to Scholes and Butt, though, one good thing came out of it as that was the wake-up call Ronaldo desperately needed to turn things around.
The Portugal captain got bigger, quicker, stronger and smarter, which eventually led him to becoming arguably the greatest ever footballer.
Scholes told Butt on the Football’s Greatest Eras podcast: “I always remember a game at AC Milan and he frustrated the life out of me.
“We were playing them away. But Gattuso kept running over to him and taking the ball off him and it was doing my head in.
“He was playing against Maldini anyway, but Gattuso just kept coming over, taking the ball off him, taking the ball off him.
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“We were having a right go at him. ‘Look, you’ve got to pass the ball, pass the ball before he gets to you. It’s quite obvious what’s happening’.
“And I think it was after that game that he realised and he thought, ‘Right, that’s the game, that’s the biggest stage, I’m going to play him. And I wasn’t quite up to speed’.
“Now, whether he thinks that or what, I don’t know, but he wasn’t game intelligent enough.
“But I think from that point on, he just excelled. He got bigger, he got quicker, he got stronger and he learned more.”
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