How Ronaldo became the world’s best: the inside story

Manchester United’s new signing wasn’t the shy and retiring type.

“Cristiano was 18 and didn’t waste time telling everyone that he was going to be the best player in the world,” recalls his former team-mate Quinton Fortune. “The rest of the players found it more amusing than arrogant. They rated him because they saw what he could do in training, but players like Ryan Giggs told him not to say such things publicly because he would only pile pressure on himself. Ronaldo laughed at that as if to say, ‘I can deal with anything’.”

Not since Eric Cantona had United seen a player with so much self-assurance. New acquisitions may arrive at Old Trafford with exalted reputations, but they still have to prove their worth. Ronaldo had already proved his by tormenting the United defence in a friendly game to open the new home of his former club, Sporting Lisbon. His only ambition was to improve.

“He was incredibly dedicated and competitive in training, he wanted to do everything better than every other player, to learn to do tricks all the time,” recalls Fortune. “He was always the best at step overs, but he started doing them with weights strapped to his ankles so that it would be easier in a real game.

"He would practice even when training finished. He would practice a trick slowly by himself. Then he’d try it in training games. Finally, he’d do it in a real game.

"If he saw someone do a new trick he would ask them how they did it. Then he’d teach himself until he was the best. I used to balance the ball on my forehead and roll it onto the crown of my head. Cristiano asked me about it. Three days later he was better than me at it and he actually goaded me to say that he was better!”

Mike Clegg was one of the men responsible for training Ronaldo every day. United’s power development coach between 2001-2011, he’s run the Olympic Sports Gym in Ashton-under-Lyne, eight miles east of Manchester, for the last three decades.

Clegg came to United’s attention after two of his sons joined the club. Michael junior was part of the 1995 FA Youth Cup winning team with David Beckham and went onto play nine games for the first team. He now works as a coach at Sunderland. His brother Steven played for United’s reserves before becoming a strength and conditioning coach at Carrington. He worked with his dad and all the United stars daily, but one of them stood out as being more dedicated than the rest.

“From the day he walked through the door at Carrington to the day he left, Cristiano Ronaldo was the greatest trainer I ever worked with,” recalls Mike Clegg.

“He took on a new level of total dedication to his training because he wanted to be the best footballer in the world. He filled his time with football, his whole life was dedicated to it. He even had his own cook so that he was eating well all the time, he made sure he bought a house with a swimming pool so that he could do more training.” Read more>>> eurosport