Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs has paid tribute to Cristiano Ronaldo’s time at the club, explaining he went from diver to the most important player on the team.
Ronaldo burst onto the scene at Old Trafford in 2003 after being signed from Sporting Lisbon.
A scintillating performance as a substitute on his debut against Bolton gave the footballing world its first true glimpse at a player who would go onto become one of the best in the world.
And Giggs, who played and scored in that 4-0 win, recalls how he never envisioned the superstar Ronaldo would become.
“You could never see him being one of the greatest goal scorers ever, you just couldn’t,” Giggs told beIN Sports.
“In his first game against Bolton he delighted the crowd and then it was a little bit of a dip really, a little bit of frustration.
“When to pass the ball, when not to, too many dribbles, a bit of diving – it was a tough start for him at United.”
As Ronaldo adapted to the demands of the Premier League, he eventually settled and scored 66 times in his final three seasons, including a stunning 31 in the 2007/08 campaign, winning the league three times.
The 34-year-old recently scored his 700th career goal for club and country, reaching the milestone for Portugal and becoming just the sixth footballer to do so.
Giggs, who played alongside Ronaldo for six seasons, said he has been impressed with how his former team-mate has continuously evolved since leaving United in 2009.
“He has evolved his game from being out wide, beating players and frustrating centre forwards with all his step overs to someone who is just so effective.
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“I watched him a couple of years ago at the Champions League final when it was Real Madrid against Juventus and I had not seen him live for a couple of years and he very rarely get involved with the build-up but when it’s in and around the box he comes alive.
“He gets on the ball, his quick feet and every finish he has got – right foot, left foot, headers, tap-ins, penalties, free-kicks. When you can do that on a consistent basis like he does, he has got to be considered one of the greatest ever.”
Roy Keane believed Ronaldo would make it to the very top, talking up his attitude and pointing out his desire to move to the north west of England from Lisbon at such a young age.
“He looked like a player. You have to look the part, and he did. [Zinedine] Zidane looked like a player – and Ronaldo looked like a player. The shape, the body language – they were there. A bit of arrogance, too. But he’d a nice way about him; he was very likeable. We forget that he was very heavily criticised when he first came on the scene. He was going down too quickly when tackled, his final product wasn’t good enough. But – again – he was only seventeen, a kid. I was playing youth football for Rockmount, in Cork, at that age.”
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