Cristiano Ronaldo’s interesting anecdote from his Manchester United days | Sportsmonks
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Cristiano Ronaldo’s interesting anecdote from his Manchester United days

The rivalry between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi initiated around a decade ago when the Portuguese star was still playing for Manchester United. At that point in time, Lionel Messi was taking small steps in FC Barcelona’s first team and obviously, there were comparisons between the two players.

Apropos to that, Peter Crouch, the former Liverpool player and England international, has revealed an interesting anecdote regarding Ronaldo in his newly released book, named ‘How to be a footballer’.

Crouch writes, “Rio Ferdinand would tell us stories about how Cristiano Ronaldo would stand in front of the mirror naked, running his hand through his hair, and say, 'Wow. I'm so beautiful!'

'The other United players would try to wind him up [by saying] 'Whatever, Leo Messi is a better player than you'.'

And Ronaldo's response?

“He would shrug his shoulders and smile again. 'Ah yes. But Messi does not look like this…’”

The competition between these two individuals further aggravated when Ronaldo moved to Real Madrid in 2009. He then spent nine trophy-laden years at Madrid, winning four Champions League titles and two La Liga titles.

Messi and Ronaldo have dominated the European scene with their astonishing performances, and have undoubtedly been the two standout players of this generation.

In fact, they have even cruised to the Ballon d’Or titles over the last ten years, with both of them winning it five times each. Even here, Ronaldo demonstrated some stunning hunger and determination by winning four Ballon d’Or titles in past five seasons. There was a time when Messi had won it four times while Ronaldo lingered to the one Ballon d'Or. However, currently, they are level on those terms at least.

However, Ronaldo’s departure from Madrid to Juventus has somewhat broken the direct rivalry between him and Messi. After having scored 450 goals for the 13 times European Champions, the 33-year-old looked for a new challenge this year and hence completed a transfer to the Turin-based club.

As for Crouch, he oversaw relegation with Stoke City last season. This time around, he has represented the Potters in six EFL Championship matches and has scored once too.

 

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