That summer, he pressed the panic
button after his role in Wayne Rooney’s
World Cup red card sparked vitriol from
English fans and media. The Sun, never
knowingly undersold, released a Ronaldo
dartboard so England supporters “could get
revenge on football’s biggest winker”. The
bullseye was CR7’s right peeper. Obviously.
He also felt a lack of support from United.
“I think I should get out of Manchester,” he
admitted. “Nobody stood up for me there.”
Barcelona and Real Madrid were linked,
although it’s since been claimed that he
agreed a deal to join Valencia. “I had his ‘yes’
to sign him,” revealed Amedeo Carboni, then
Los Che’s director of football. “We had found
the financial resources to bring him in, and
we had made arrangements with Nike and
Coca-Cola, the player’s sponsors. I had the
contracts signed by his agent Jorge Mendes- nothing was missing.”
But Ferguson changed Ronaldo’s mind.
The player had been bitterly disappointed by
the lack of contact from his United manager - Ferguson had actually been attempting to
message Ronaldo only to discover he’d been
contacting an old number. When he finally
managed to get in touch, he arranged to see
Ronaldo at Vale do Lobo.
Rooney had already assured his team-
mate that the World Cup incident was
forgotten, offering to do a joint interview to
make that clear. On the Algarve, Ferguson
insisted that he wanted Ronaldo to stay,
explaining how David Beckham had gone
from public enemy number one to Treble
winner within a year of his red card against
Argentina at the 1998 World Cup. “It was
exactly the same as this,” Ferguson stated to
him. “They were hanging effigies of him
outside pubs, he was the devil incarnate, but
he had the balls to fight it. You have to get
through it.” Ronaldo decided to remain at
Old Trafford. Like Beckham, he responded to
the abuse by having the best season of his
career so far. Like Beckham, he was second
in the Ballon d’Or 12 months later.
Ronaldo and Rooney combined to help
the Reds thrash Fulham 5-1 on the opening
day of the campaign – the former was booed
at away games, but it only inspired him to
new heights. “Cristiano loved the interaction
with the supporters, good or bad,” former
United team-mate Louis Saha explains to
FFT. “He had a strong mentality, it didn’t
erode. He had a thick skin.”
Saha had seen signs of that resilience in
the early years of Ronaldo’s United career –
most notably in a 4-2 victory at Highbury on
a raucous February 2005 night that began
with Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira’s infamous
tunnel bust-up.
“Arsenal had tried to intimidate Cristiano
in that game,” says the Frenchman. “He was
tackled really badly by Lauren, a really mean
tackle. He stood up straight away and came
back. He scored after that.“I remember thinking to myself, ‘This guy
is a machine, how can he be that talented?’”
With Van Nistelrooy sold in the summer
of 2006, Ronaldo had the breathing space to
flourish and a bet to win. Every year, CR7 and
Ferguson wagered £100 on how many goals
the former would score. In his first campaign,
it was ten. Ronaldo lost. In 2004–05, it was
raised to 15. He lost. And again in 2005–06.
For 2006–07, with Ferguson having refused
to take his winnings each season, Ronaldo
raised the stakes to £400. He was collecting
his winnings by February.
The Portuguese went on to score 23 times
that season, almost double his previous best
tally, and bagged his first Champions League
goals in the 7-1 demolition of Roma, his 27th
appearance in the competition.
By the end of 2006–07, United had won
the league. Ronaldo was named PFA Player of
the Year and Young Player of the Year – the
first man to win both awards in the same
season since Andy Gray in 1977.“I’D RATHER SHOOT YOU THAN SELL YOU”
Ronaldo was rapidly improving his finishing
and his decision-making, after being told to
study clips of the club’s legendary strikers –LONG LIVE
THE KING“ROnALDO DECIDED TO REMAIn AT OLD
TRAFFORD. HE RESPOnDED TO THE ABUSE BY
HAVInG THE BEST SEASOn OF HIS CAREER”
Above right “Ooh,
Ole, what wonderful
thighs you have...”
FourFourTwo.com The Story of Man Utd 123