Ronaldo pictured with former manager Alex Ferguson
Arthur O’Dea | Sports Staff
As Manchester United donned their white away kit in Rome’s Stadio Olimpico for their second successive Champions League final on May 27th, 2009 a place in history beckoned them forth. No club, since its reincarnation as the Champions League in the 1992/93 season had managed to retain the trophy the year after they had won it. Man United had of course beaten Chelsea in a dramatic penalty shoot-out in May 2008 so now the stage was set. However, the white jersey, instead of the red synonymously associated with Man United was but only one way of separating both finalists. If not through colour alone then surely it was the alarming disparity in play and performance which separated United and the Champions to be, Barcelona.
Had that final gone differently one wonders what fate would have shone on Cristiano Ronaldo. By regular standards he was already a superstar. He had captured every domestic and continental honour at club level. He had been bestowed every individual award going. Perhaps more poignant still, he had made the fabled number 7 jersey of Manchester United; the number 7 of Best, Cantona, Robson and Beckham and constructed his own legacy around it. One feels that its inheritance onto the shoulders of an aging Michael Owen in Ronaldo’s absence was more an act of mercy then one of serious expectation. Owen himself had nothing left to prove in the game, he too had won the Ballon d’Or and although he’d never cement a place in the Man United first XI, the jersey was in safe hands. It would take a back seat before being promptly rejuvenated back to a number of great significance.
Yet, for all of Ronaldo’s successes, the Champions League final of 2009 saw not only the continuation of a great spell of dominance for Barcelona, it also presented to Cristiano Ronaldo the cold hard fact that despite the enormous strides he was making in club football, there was going to be one man who would consistently out shine him. Lionel Messi was far from being obscure, but, before the final of 2009 Cristiano Ronaldo was the biggest draw in World football. May 27th, 2009 was the last time Cristiano Ronaldo would play for Manchester United, but much to his bemusement it would not be the last time he felt outdone by Lionel Messi while wearing a jersey of pristine white.
The summers of 2009 and 2010 brought to Real Madrid two Portuguese superstars by way of Cristiano Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho respectively. Although the 2011/12 season allowed Real Madrid to briefly out do Barcelona by reclaiming La Liga, as we stand at the precipice of the 2012/13 season a degree of order has been restored. Real Madrid, the league champions, sit in third place, behind city neighbours Atletico, and first placed Barcelona. There sits a constant speculation around the future of both Portuguese superstars, for they were paramount in bringing the brief success, so they shall now perish when the fountain dries up. Their reputations shall remain perfectly intact though, for nobody who joins Real Madrid in any capacity ever really seems to come out the same man. What is expected at Real Madrid remains a mystery to those who look from the outside in.
With their league crown all but resigned to elude them, it is to May 25th, 2013 that ‘Los Blancos’ will look to with bated breath. Wembley’s seventh Champions League final is the stage on which Mourinho, Ronaldo & co. can seek some resolution. Yet, should they fulfil this destiny, Real Madrid’s long awaited tenth European triumph, Ronaldo must first embrace his greatest challenge to date. While Messi may prove an inscrutable force of nature in the field of play, it is a revitalized Alex Ferguson who now stands tallest on Ronaldo’s march to outdo him.
In six seasons Cristiano Ronaldo became Alex Ferguson’s most ferocious weapon. What Roy Keane had displayed in leadership and determination, Ronaldo brought in goals and inspiration. The player who emerged on English shores no more than a boy, with peroxide streaks, bad teeth and an array of step-overs and diving that often bordered on the ludicrous, would become Ferguson’s greatest protégé. While Ronaldo wished initially to wear the number 28 – his number at Sporting Lisbon – Ferguson denied him the privilege and instead handed him the number 7, and all the expectation and tradition it carried with it. For a few years he remained a very rough diamond, many doubting what Ferguson knew of his potential. From 2006/07 until his departure in 2009, he cemented his place as one of Manchester United’s and World’s greatest footballers. There remains little doubt therefore that Ronaldo would dub Ferguson his ‘father in sport’.
While many may speculate his return to be that of a prodigal son to the forgiving Father, the nature of this reunification shall be nothing of the sort. Alex Ferguson and all who followed Manchester United knew that Ronaldo had not fallen for the temptation of the riches which awaited him in Madrid. He had earned them. Unlike the quieter, likeable Messi, Ronaldo had operated on a different plateau. When he inherited the number 7 jersey at Manchester United at 18 years old he also took with him a little piece of the notable players who had worn it. From David Beckham he earned a sense of what hard work and endless honing of skills can help one to achieve, demonstrated in the shared ability they have in dead ball situations. From George Best he garnered a shared sense of expectation which arrives in the form of media fascination at the sheer talent both men posses. Like Best, Ronaldo had the priceless knack of scoring a goal when even the onlooker ponders to think how Best or Ronaldo themselves even knew to see the opportunity.
Brian Robson’s legacy came a little later to Ronaldo. His distinct growth of character and leadership which has led him to captain his country can be seen to ferment through Ronaldo’s professionalism the more he matures. It is Cantona’s gift to Ronaldo however that assures me when Ronaldo steps into Old Trafford, heralding his heavenly white, he shall be warmly welcomed as one of their own. In handing Ronaldo the number 7 jersey, Ferguson, safe in the knowledge Ronaldo would succeed, allowed him to assume Cantona’s most fearsome trait – confidence. Cristiano Ronaldo is the embodiment of 40 years of four previous influential number 7’s. His is a face the Man United faithful will temporarily fear, but forever admire.
Football entranced the boy. Manchester United turned him into a player. Alex Ferguson made him a man. In bestowing six years of his life to Manchester United one can see that their fortune quickly changed. From a tumultuous period where domestic titles were near impossible to seize and European success had been deemed a step even further, Ronaldo brought forth the greatest concentrated era of success Ferguson and United have known. What Ferguson has done for Ronaldo shall never be forgotten by the latter, but concurrently one can see that the development of Ronaldo allowed Ferguson to reignite his passion for success and at 71 he has as much cause to thank Ronaldo, as Ronaldo does him.
