August 6, 2003. The name 'Ronaldo' flashed up on MUTV. This Ronaldo was quickly dismissed.
"He can't be as good as the Ronaldo," my father quipped. Then this new Ronaldo, Cristiano, danced around Manchester United players as though they were training cones.
Five days later, I returned home from a day at the cricket and switched on teletext. 302. The football page. The headline read, 'UNITED AGREE TO SIGN RONALDO'.
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Even back then, Cristiano Ronaldo did not need an introduction. Anyone who had watched United's friendly defeat in the inaugural match at the Jose Alvalade Stadium knew which Ronaldo was bound for United.
One approved. In those silver Nike boots, United had identified a golden boy at the age of 18. Ronaldo would become the fourth United player to receive the Ballon d'Or's golden orb in 2008.
Ronaldo is 40 now and his career, as well as his birthday, merits celebration. He has relocated to the Saudi Arabia retirement home and he calls the shots in the Portugal national team, riding roughshod over coach Roberto Martinez. Ronaldo was raging against the dying of the light in his final months back at United and the light has not switched back on.
His greatness ought to make anyone light up. Young United fans there to witness Ronaldo's homecoming season in 2021-22 will still not realise how privileged they were. He railed against that team's fecklessness and mediocrity and summoned up moments of genuine inspiration. United have not had a consistent and proven goalscorer since Ronaldo in 2021-22.
For those fortunate to watch him during his peak years at Old Trafford, Ronaldo was a throwback. In his early twenties, Ronaldo the winger was comparable with Ryan Giggs and George Best, a wide player who oozed United's ethos. The current United is devoid of a winger and potent striker.
Especially in his breakthrough 2006-07 season. Wearing a blood-red V-neck kit designed in homage to the first Busby Babes title-winning side, the rip-roaring Ronaldo was one of the purest wingers to grace English football. He received the first of two PFA Player of the Year awards.
Ronaldo did not score in one of his finest performances for United on St Patrick's Day in 2007 against Bolton Wanderers. The game was crowned by Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney's coruscating breakaway that was awarded the goal of the season. Bolton manager Sam Allardyce pitted the auxiliary left back Henrik Pedersen against Ronaldo.
Allardyce was asked afterwards if Pedersen would be mentally scarred. "Scars?" Allardyce scoffed. "We're going to need a f*****g plastic surgeon after that." United were 3-0 up after 25 minutes. Pedersen came off after 28 minutes.
"He plays on the left, he plays on the right, that boy Ronaldo makes England look s***e," soundtracked that season on the back of Ronaldo's role in England's World Cup elimination. After David Beckham in 1998, Phil Neville in 2000 and even Roy Keane in 2002, Ronaldo was the national scapegoat for his role in Rooney's red card against Portugal.
Sir Alex Ferguson's intervention in summer 2006 to assuage Ronaldo was as crucial as his hairy motorcycle ride through Paris to implore Eric Cantona to continue with United in 1995. “They’ll just boo you,” Ferguson told him.
Ronaldo had his head turned by Real Madrid as far back as the summer of 2006 but his first world-class years were spent with United.
For those who sloped down to the opulent avant-garde architecture of the Moscow Metro ahead of the 2008 Champions League final, belting out "Viva Ronaldo" is as much of a treasured memory as witnessing Edwin van der Sar's penalty save from Nicolas Anelka at the Luzhniki Stadium.
The bar scarves that were gifted to supporters to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster are as synonymous with Ronaldo as that sobering spring Sunday at Old Trafford in February 2008. United fans twirled them like a lasso, hollering his name.
"Well, I have to say I'm running out of words to describe this lad," Andy Gray muttered after Ronaldo's singular free kick against Portsmouth in January 2008. Ronaldo defied football's physics that evening and spawned generations of imitators.
There were also glimpses of the entitlement he would develop. During the listless defeat to Manchester City in February 2008 - United's first at home in a derby since Denis Law's backheel in 1974 - Ronaldo overhit a cross and then lingered, detached from teammates and in a sulk. There was the individualism that has occasionally defined him.
That was bearable baggage, though. Ronaldo plundered 42 goals in 2007-08. He eclipsed the tally in campaigns with Real Madrid yet his penultimate year with United remains arguably his greatest.
He tallied that haul almost entirely from the wing as Ronaldo transitioned to centre forward at the season’s denouement in the Champions League. The competitiveness of the Premier League was at its peak and Ronaldo only failed to score against two teams - City and Barcelona.
His final season was peppered with tantrums. Ronaldo agreed with the Fifa president Sepp Blatter's crass comment that he was a "slave" amid United's refusal to sell him to Real Madrid. A banner was then unfurled at Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's first match in charge of United reserves at Burscough that read 'Ronaldo slave out'.
Ronaldo refused to celebrate against West Brom, bickered with Aston Villa fans, there was the selfish self-substitution against Sunderland and a histrionic reaction to being substituted against City. Ronaldo's body language would have made Marcus Rashford blush at times. Those two are now represented by the same PR.
Ronaldo wanted to be in Madrid rather than Manchester after United lifted the European Cup in Russia. Even with his heart not fully in it, Ronaldo still got 26 goals in 55 games and helped United to the Club World Cup, the League Cup and the Premier League title in 2008-09.
Ferguson took the unusual step of censuring Ronaldo in public. "You can't get everything your own way," he said on the eve of the Champions League quarter-final second leg away to Porto in April 2009. Ronaldo responded with an Exocet that decided the tie, still his greatest goal.
After he received the club's goal of the season for it, Ronaldo modestly admitted: "In my opinion, it was a fantastic goal."
To mark his 40th, Ronaldo said this week: "I’m the most complete player ever.” More so than even the other Ronaldo.
