Cristiano Ronaldo Dream come true

The Manchester United winger has been a top priority for several major sides and he flirted with Real Madrid this summer.

Things could have been different though as Suarez reveals he advised the Nerazzurri to sign the player only for his words to fall on deaf ears.

“Ronaldo was just 17 at the time and a friend of mine in Portugal told me to go and have a look at him,” Suarez told AS.

“I went to the stadium and saw him for the first time and he did some magical things which were not normal.

“I monitored him and I called up the Inter directors and advised them to take him before he made his debut for the senior side. ”

“Back then his agent was Veiga, not his current one, Fernando Mendes.

“However, everything turned out differently and we all knew what happened. He could have signed for Inter.”

Ronaldo played for Sporting at the time but Inter failed to take Suarez’s advice and the Portuguese international ended up at Old Trafford and has become one of the world’s greatest players.

Real did all they could to unsettle the Portugal international last season, with coach Bernd Schuster constantly telling Spanish media that Ronaldo was their No 1 priority.

Schuster has continued to court the 23-year-old this campaign, and only yesterday was quoted as saying: “Manchester United are going to find it very difficult to retain Cristiano next summer.

“He’s full of pride about the idea of coming to Madrid. We’re full of hope we’ll sign him next season.”

These remarks will not go down well with United fans, who are sick of hearing quotes eminating from Madrid regarding their star player.

However, Ronaldo himself has vowed to do all he can to help Sir Alex Ferguson’s men retain their Premier League and Champions League crowns, and believes most United supporters have welcomed him back into their hearts.

He said: “In the game when I came back against Villarreal I wasn’t nervous but just a bit excited about how the fans would react to me.

“Thank God things went well. This shows people have not forgotten all the good things we’ve done together and I’m very happy with that.

“Things are going pretty well. I’d love a repeat of last season and continue to show some good progression.”

Ronaldo scored 42 goals in all competitions last term as United claimed domestic and European success.

His return to first-team action this year was delayed as he recovered from an ankle operation following Euro 2008.

However, the Portuguese has scored twice since making his comeback and is slowly returning to the form that makes him one of the favourites for the Fifa World Player of the Year award in December. It seems that every day that passes, Messi amasses another footballing heavyweight ratifying his bid to be given the illustrious personal honour. The French international, who himself finished second to Pavel Nedved for the coveted prize in 2003, gave Messi his backing but also found time to single out another Barcelona colleague for praise.

Henry told the press room, ” Iniesta is an unbelivable player; I can’t understand why he was not on the list of thirty candidates (for the prize). He was the best player in the Champions League final when I played with Arsenal (against Barcelona), and we play better with him in the team.”

But when asked what could stop Lionel Messi from winning the Ballon d’Or award, the answer was simple.

“He needs to win titles, that is the only thing that counts against him,” he said.  ” But I see him do incredible things in training, and then he produces them on the field, like the match against Atletico Madrid.”

Henry is right – Messi needs to acquire team honurs as well as individual accolades to be considered alongside the true greats.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 17th, 2008 at 12:01 pm and is filed under Cristiano Ronaldo, Manutd. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.