Gary Neville reveals how Manchester United players turned Cristiano Ronaldo into a superstar
Former England coach says Real Madrid icon owes his status to tough training regimes during six years at Old Trafford
GARY NEVILLE has insists Manchester United made Cristiano Ronaldo into the world superstar he is today.
The Real Madrid ace is considered one of the greatest players to have ever graced the game — and was won the Ballon d’Or three times.
Yet, when he arrived at Old Trafford in 2003, he was a skinny 18-year-old.
Neville insists the tough personalities and training methods at United helped toughen Ronaldo up.
Speaking to , the former England coach said: “He didn’t arrive at Manchester United as someone who was setting the tone for everybody else.
“It wasn’t a case of he came in and all of a sudden everyone else upped their game, that’s not how it was.
“He became that out of what was in that dressing room. Cristiano was butchered and battered for two or three years at Manchester United and he has said it made him a man.
“He was setting the standards when he left, and he became someone who would come in and do half an hour before training and an hour after training, but there had been 20 players per season for 15 years doing that every day.
“The club, and Sir Alex [Ferguson], and the players all set the tone for each other.
“If you look at his performances in the first two or three years — his maturity, his decision making, his physicality, his petulance, they were all smoothed out over a period of three or four years at the club.”
Ronaldo had all the tricks when he arrived at United, but was still quite scrawny and easily pushed off the ball.
However, following his controversial 2006 World Cup, he returned to Manchester as twice the player — and the man.
He had grown in stature and was a different player.
Neville believes the change was evident to everyone at the club.
He added: “For two years, 2007-08 and 2008-09, I cannot believe Manchester United fans could ever have seen anything like that.
“He was just out of this world, like he was from another planet.”
Ronaldo won three league titles in a row at United as well an FA Cup, the League Cup twice, an Intercontinental Cup and the Champions League in 2008.
In the 2006-07, he was named FA Players’ Player and Young Player of the Year — and retained the main award a year later en route to a first Ballon d’Or success.
Since leaving United, Ronaldo has gone from strength-to-strength.
He won the Ballon d’Or and Champions League twice more and even added a La Liga title in 2012.
Listen to the full interview