The beginning of the end to Cristiano Ronaldo's glorious United career came on 11 June 2009, when the Reds announced they had accepted a world-record offer of £80million from Real Madrid.In six years at Old Trafford, the Portuguese winger exhausted all superlatives as he matured from the inexperienced youngster who left Sporting Lisbon in 2003 to become the best footballer on the planet. The story goes that Sir Alex was persuaded to buy Ronaldo - largely unknown when he signed as an 18-year-old for £12.24m in 2003 - by his players on the plane home from a pre-season friendly against Sporting. In truth, the boss had long been aware of his ability. The urgency stemmed from other clubs’ increasing interest. This was a target Sir Alex simply could not miss out on.
Ronaldo wasted little time in showing off his sublime skills with a stunning 30-minute debut against Bolton at OT in August 2003. There was a buzz of excitement as soon as he stepped off the bench and, after 39 appearances and eight goals that season – including the opener in the 3-0 FA Cup final win over Mill wall – he was named Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year. His second term didn’t quite live up to his first, but late season form saw him end 2004/05 with nine goals in 50 appearances. In 2005/06 Ronny again reserved his best form for the latter stages, but the inconsistencies of a developing young player were being ironed out. He departed, full of hope and with great expectations, for the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany - what turned out to be a truly defining moment in his career. In the quarter finals, Portugal met England and, after Wayne Rooney’s sending off, Ronaldo became the pantomime villain for the English press. Some doubted he would return to Manchester. But Sir Alex assured him any ill-feeling would blow over. It’d happened with Eric Cantona and David Beckham. Ronaldo met the inevitable boos with the best football of his life.
United’s title success in 2006/2007 was a team effort, but one man took the lead role in every major plotline. It began with the barnstorming 5-1 win over Fulham – Ronaldo and Rooney ran the show and publicly banished claims they were at odds. Dazzling wing-play was backed with regular assists and crucial goals. His form that season brought a glut of individual accolades and, despite interest from other clubs - notably Real Madrid - he extended his contract until 2012. Ronaldo improved further in2007/08, netting a staggering 42 goals in all competitions. In May 2008 he fired United to domestic and European glory; scoring a decisive penalty on the final day of the league campaign and a powerful header in the Champions League final in Moscow. His staggering individual performances gleaned a clean sweep of club and domestic individual honors, with global gongs soon to follow.At Euro 2008, Ronaldo’s future was again the subject of claim and counter-claim. Happily, in the end, he pledged his allegiance to United, although ankle surgery delayed his start to the 2008/09 campaign. He made his return as a substitute against Villarreal in the Champions League and was given a rousing home reception. Two months later, his 100th Reds goal arrived against Stoke City at OT on 15 November 2008.
Ronaldo’s magical 2008 was rounded off with another string of individual honors. In October he was named FIFPro Player of the Year, and in December became the first United player since George Best in 1968 to be awarded the prestigious Balloon d’Or trophy. To cap it off, in January 2009, he became the first Red to win the FIFA World Player of the Year award. "This is the climax of a fantastic era," he said at the ceremony in Zurich. "I'm lucky to be part of United's history. It's one of the most important moments of my life, I hope to be back in this position again."
While Ronaldo did not dominate on the field in 2008/09 to the same degree as he did in 2007/08, he still played a significant role as the Reds achieved a hat-trick of league titles and reached a second successive European Cup final. For example, Cristiano scored in all three knock-out rounds of the Champions League, including the club's Goal of the Season to defeat Porto in the quarter-final second leg in his native Portugal and a double in the semi-final second leg against Arsenal at the Emirates.
In his final appearance of the season at Old Trafford, Ronaldo received his third championship medal after the Reds sealed the title with a point against Arsenal. At that stage, there was no indication that Cristiano was contemplating an exit - but that all changed less than a month later when the club announced it had accepted Real Madrid's record £80m offer.
So yeah, despite on good he is as a footballer, do you really think that he worth that much? Well, I believe that football is a team games, so no matter how good you are, if you can’t work together with your teammate, then everything would be useless. You can not just play by yourself as you will be need ten other people to back you up in every positions. You know how big the field is, don’t you? You can not carry the ball from edge to edge just by yourself, no way. Yeah, I aware that Real Madrid is indeed a very big and rich team, but don’t they afraid if what happened with Beckham happen again? After spending so much money on Mr. Posh, turned out he was not as good as he was in Manchester United. He couldn’t married with the team, and he was injured almost all season through, what a wasted! But yeah, maybe with Ronaldo the situation is different. He is on his glorious term at the moment, so we’ll see. Hey, Spain’s culture is not really much different with his own Portuguese roots, so yeah, I really hope that he will do good over there in Madrid. I just don’t get it, why almost every top football players really love this Spaniard team? I know the team is very rich and loaded, but as for me, I would choose Manchester United over Real Madrid. But hey, that was just me, am a Red Devils inside out. As for Ronaldo and many other footballers, it was probably all about the money, hah!
^_^
Source : http://www.manutd.com/
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