by Luca Caioli
After the statements, it’s time for the photo on the Old Trafford pitch. A smiling Ferguson is in the centre wearing a dark suit, white shirt and red tie. His right arm is around Kléberson and his left is around Ronaldo, both of whom are wearing the team strip. Looking the most serious of the three, Cristiano is sporting the number 7, worn by all the United greats before him: George Best, Steve Coppel, Bryan Robson, Eric Cantona and David Beckham.
How is it possible that a new signing who is so young gets to wear a shirt that carries the weight of the club’s history? Ronaldo will later recount what happened to The Sun. ‘I asked whether the number 28 shirt, which I had at Sporting Lisbon, was available. Alex Ferguson said to me, “No no, yours is the number 7.” “Ok boss!” I wasn’t going to say to him, “No no, mine is the number 28.”’
Here’s how Sir Alex explains the motives behind his decision to the press: ‘We have given Ronaldo this shirt because he is young and he is going to do great things. A number of great players in the club’s history have worn this shirt. Ronaldo has great confidence in his abilities and he is going to be here for a while. The number 7 shirt is his.’
‘The number 7 shirt is an honour and a responsibility,’ replies Cristiano. ‘I hope it brings me a lot of luck.’ And to the Portuguese press he explains: ‘Everyone in Manchester has been telling me about Best and Cantona … I’m proud to follow in their footsteps. But there’s something that the Brits don’t know – number 7 is also special to me because it’s the number that Luís Figo wore at Sporting. I have wanted to be like him since I was a little kid and wear the number 7, just like my great friend Quaresma who is now wearing it at Barcelona. Both of us can now say that our dreams have come true.’
His dreams may have come true, but isn’t it scary for an eighteen-year-old to wear a legendary shirt and play for United in such a competitive and high-pressured league? ‘I’m not afraid, not at all,’ replies Ronaldo. ‘I know it will be difficult, but I will learn so much playing alongside some of the best players in the world.’ Years later he will reaffirm that feeling, adding that after what he went through during his first year in Lisbon, he was no longer afraid of anything.
Ronaldo debuts at Old Trafford three days after his official presentation. It is the first matchday of the season and Man United are at home to Bolton. Cristiano is on the bench, but in the 60th minute Ferguson needs to shake up a game that is stuck at 1-0 and he sends him on as a substitute for Nicky Butt. The spectators stand to applaud the new signing, while the commentators remind viewers that he is ‘one of the most expensive teenagers in the game’.
The 67,647 fans certainly aren’t disappointed by his running and dribbling, and during the remaining 30 minutes the new number 7 demonstrates his potential on the wing. He creates two chances and provokes a penalty which van Nistelrooy fails to convert. He is crowned man of the match and gets to pop his first bottle of champagne. Roy Keane is the first to congratulate him, followed by his other team-mates, and he receives a standing ovation from the crowd.
‘It looks like the fans have a new hero. It was a marvellous debut, almost unbelievable,’ comments Ferguson after the 4-0 win. It’s a great debut, but let’s not jump the gun. There is no rush, and there’s no need to place pressure on the youngster. The experienced Ferguson is all too aware of this: ‘We have to be careful with the boy. You must remember he’s only eighteen – we are going to have to gauge when we use him.’
And he does – protecting him just as he has done Beckham, Giggs or Scholes before him. There is time for play and time for rest, and there are matches spent on the bench. The kid from Madeira has to adapt to his new life and, more importantly, to English football: the style, the rules, Man United’s game and his team-mates, as well as the climate, the food and the language. And let’s not forget the English press who follow him closely and offer plenty of criticism – about his manner, the way he dresses, his supposed girlfriend, his past, his family and what he does on the pitch.
One of the first strictly sport-related criticisms concerns diving. It comes after a league match against Charlton when Chris Perry tells the press: ‘Once or twice when you go down it’s legitimate. But Ronaldo went down five or six times in the game and he certainly was not caught for every single one.’ Ferguson’s response to the opposition defence is succinct: ‘I have watched the video again and Cristiano would have needed the strength of Atlas not to go down.’
Despite the manager’s reassurance, the accusations continue to fly all season and in the years that follow about diving, fouling, complaining to the referee and the crowd and pulling faces of exaggerated pain after a foul. What Cristiano finds difficult is adapting to the more physical English game, where defenders are allowed to do things they cannot do in Portugal, where strikers take plenty of knocks, where his cockiness and tricks with the ball make opponents edgy and where complaining is not tolerated.
On 21 September, Ronaldo gets a taste of just what can happen in the Premier League in a match against Arsenal which finishes 0-0 but results in a punch-up. He comes up against Martin Keown and the FA fines him £4,000. He has got off lightly, because his opponent and two other Gunners players are suspended for three or four matches apiece.
On 1 October, the number 7 makes his Champions League debut against VfB Stuttgart. He is in the starting line-up and in the 67th minute he provokes a penalty which, this time, van Nistelrooy converts to help close the gap. It’s 2-1 at the final whistle at the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion. Just one month later on 1 November against Portsmouth at Old Trafford, he scores his first goal in the number 7 shirt from a free kick taken just outside the area. It’s a powerful shot, the ball arcs over the defenders and strikers, deflects off the pitch and flies into the net. It’s a moment of happiness and celebration, and a shot which the commentators claim reminds them of Beckham at his best. The boy from Madeira is off to a promising start, but by the end of the season he will have only scored four goals in 25 Premiership appearances.
It’s Boxing Day 2003, Manchester United versus Everton, and the Red Devils are desperately in need of points to keep up with Arsenal. Cristiano puts on a stellar performance: he is keeping his opponents on their toes, he sparks the play that leads to Nicky Butt’s goal, and he assists David Bellion in scoring the third. And all this in spite of continual fouling and scuffles on the wing with Wayne Rooney, who is on fire at the Theatre of Dreams. It’s a duel between two promising young Premiership players which will give the viewers plenty to talk about. After Boxing Day, Ferguson gives his number 7 three weeks off to go back to Madeira. It’s a reward and a way to relieve the pressure, although not everyone agrees with the manager’s decision.
On 25 February 2004, Cristiano returns to Portugal once again, although this time it’s not for a holiday. This time it’s to play Porto in the final sixteen of the Champions League, and José Mourinho’s team are definitely not rated as favourites. Ferguson is convinced that his team will be victorious at the Dragão stadium. But it’s not to be, and at the final whistle it’s 2-1 to Mourinho’s men. What about Cristiano? He only plays fourteen minutes and he is powerless throughout. At the end of the match, Ferguson can only bemoan the role of Portuguese goalie Vítor Baía in the sending off of Roy Keane. And here begins Mourinho’s long diatribe against the United manager. ‘You would be sad if your team was clearly dominated by opponents who have been built on ten per cent of the budget,’ he declares.
The Red Devils can only hope to even the score in the return leg at Old Trafford. Paul Scholes gets the scoreboard going with a header in the 31st minute, Porto struggle to get any chances, and Scholes has another goal disallowed offside. But Ferguson is confident and in the 74th minute he sends Ronaldo on for Darren Fletcher. Eight minutes later his game is over thanks to an ankle injury which forces him off the pitch. He can only watch from the bench as Francisco Costinha levels the score in the final minute to take Porto through to the quarter finals. José Mourinho celebrates coming one step closer to his first
Champions League title.
On 15 May United play their final league match of the season against Aston Villa at Villa Park. Ronaldo scores his fourth league goal and receives his first red card since arriving in England. He had already been booked for playing up when he wasn’t really hurt and, in the 80th minute, he kicks the ball unnecessarily out of anger. It’s not a great end to his Premiership season.
Man United finish third on 79 points, four points behind Chelsea and fifteen behind Arsenal who take home the title. The final of the FA Cup is still to come, one last opportunity to win a title after being knocked out of all the others, including the Carling Cup. The match is against Millwall at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff and this time Ronaldo shines. He heads a pass from Neville in the 44th minute to score the first goal, and he leads a United attack which goes on to win 3-0.
He is not man of the match – that honour is reserved for Ruud van Nistelrooy who has scored the other two goals. But everyone is talking about him. As Gary Neville says: ‘Ryan Giggs and Ruud van Nistelrooy produced some good moments for us, but Cristiano was particularly outstanding. I think Ronaldo can be one of the top footballers in the world.’
‘Ronaldo was outstanding,’ agrees Sir Alex. ‘We need to look after him in the right way because he is going to be an outstanding footballer.’ And it’s not just his manager and team-mates who think so. The papers give him nine out of ten, the best in the team. The veterans compare his performance with that of Sir Stanley Matthews in the 1953 FA Cup final.
Cristiano Ronaldo finishes the end of his first season as a Red Devil on a high. He has scored eight goals in 39 appearances across all the various tournaments. And with more than 10,000 votes from the Man United fans, he is named the Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year. Commenting on the prize, Sir Alex Ferguson says: ‘Ronaldo is a young player who made an immense impact last season. He fully deserves the Sir Matt Busby award. Sir Matt believed in giving young players a chance, and Ronaldo falls into that category.’
Now it’s up to Cristiano to be just as convincing when he plays for Portugal.
Chapter 8
Greek tragedy
‘It was a huge disappointment. I wanted to be the champion of Europe at nineteen.’
‘Have faith’ reads the headline on the front page of Portugal’s daily sports paper O Jogo – The Game – accompanied by a picture of a weeping Cristiano Ronaldo, looking up to the heavens with his hands clasped as if in prayer. It is one of the few voices of hope in the Portuguese press on 13 June 2004. The other papers talk of ‘a country on the verge of a nervous breakdown’ and ‘a country in tears’. Greece has beaten Portugal in the opening match of UEFA Euro 2004. No other host nation has ever been beaten in the opening match. And the Greeks have never won in the final stages of the tournament. How could this have happened?
‘We went out there with an enormous amount of anticipation and the anxiety got the better of us. The atmosphere counted against us,’ explains the captain, Luís Figo. ‘We were overwhelmed by the pressure,’ agrees fellow veteran Rui Costa, member of the ‘golden generation’ of Portuguese football which won two World Youth Championships in 1989 and 1991. ‘We were very nervous,’ adds Simão. ‘We had never considered the possibility that we might lose.’
Without a doubt, the expectations of an entire country could well have placed undue pressure on the national team’s European debut. But at the recent inauguration of Porto’s new Dragão stadium, everyone present witnessed a Greek team that was extremely well organised, tidy at the back, disciplined, intent on destroying the opponent’s game, and determined to take advantage of even the slightest chance, be it from a counterattack or a dead ball. It’s a great example of the tight Catenaccio defensive style used by the Italians in the 1960s. In other words, it makes for a fairly boring match, with one team entrapping the other into a labyrinth from which it is impossible to escape.
This is what has happened to Figo’s men. The Portuguese players have become trapped in the web woven by Otto Rehhagel, Greece’s German manager. They have lost control of the match because veteran Lions such as Figo, Rui Costa and Couto are not on form. Neither are Costinha and Maniche and Brazilian manager Luiz Felipe Scolari is all too aware of it. At half time it is 1-0 to the Greeks after a long shot from Inter’s Karagunis in the seventh minute – although not so powerful that Ricardo couldn’t have stopped it.
During the break the manager sends Deco and Cristiano Ronaldo to warm up. In his green tracksuit, wearing number 17, highlighted Mohawk slicked back, two earrings glinting like headlights, Ronaldo takes off on a zigzagging run, kicks the ball around and returns to the dugout. He listens to Scolari’s tactical instructions and then heads onto the pitch. It is obvious that he is incredibly excited.
Five minutes later, like an impetuous kid, he mows down Giourkas Seitaridis, the Greek bulldog guarding the left wing. Cristiano drags him from behind, regains his position, and in his inexperience he knocks him down. Italian referee Pierluigi Collina calls a penalty and Angelos Basinas makes it 2-0. The crowd is beginning to whistle at Rui Jorge and a very tired Figo, while the Greeks cheer every pass their players make.
Portugal’s number 17 doubles his efforts on the left wing. He runs back and forth, dodging and feinting. He unsettles his opponents and keeps passing but there is no one there to receive his shots. In the 83rd minute he decides to try his luck and shoots: it’s a forceful shot that just grazes Antonios Nikopolidis’s right hand post. Cristiano looks up to the sky and clasps his hands in a silent prayer. Someone up there must hear his plea because ten minutes later he scores. It is his first goal in an official match with the national team, from a left-side corner taken by Figo. Ronaldo leaps into the air and swings his head at it, sending the ball flying in a perfect arc. Nikopolidis can only stand and watch.
It’s a moment of great happiness for the nineteen-year-old boy who only made his debut with Portugal nine months earlier. On 14 August 2003 he received the call from his mother informing him of his first call up for the friendly against Kazakhstan. Shortly afterwards, his agent Jorge Mendes confirms the good news. ‘I am happy and proud to be one of the chosen ones,’ says Ronaldo. ‘I am very grateful to the selectors. This is a very special moment in my life, all the good things have come at once – first Man United and now the national team. I want to play and I want to win.’
On 20 August 2003 in Chaves, Portugal, Ronaldo dons the red and green shirt for the first time. Luiz Felipe Scolari brings him on in the second half, replacing Luís Figo. He suddenly finds himself surrounded by the champions he has always looked up to as role models. His mentors Luís Figo and Rui Costa have told him to stay calm and play the way he always does. Above all, they tell him not to let his emotions get the better of him. The youngster follows their advice to the letter and the press later name him player of the match. Scolari congratulates him. Two months later in Lisbon on 11 October, he will be in the starting line-up for the first time against Albania. And gradually, he earns his way into the Euro 2004 squad.
But it’s a European tournament that starts badly with an unexpected defeat. ‘In such a short competition, you only have room for one mistake and we’ve already made ours,’ says Scolari. ‘Now the matches against Russia and Spain are life or death.’ Luckily Portugal is on track in the other Group A matches. Scolari adjusts his strategy, throws political correctness out the window, and benches veterans Couto and Rui Costa. He calls on the Porto army – central defender Carvalho and playmaker Deco – as well as Cristiano Ronaldo.
Former Portugal and Benfica star Eusébio had implored the team to pick up their game. And they do as he asks. They dominate the next two games, securing a 2-0 victory over Russia, with goals from Maniche and Rui Costa, and a 1-0 win against Spain thanks to a goal from Nuno Gomes. They have made it through to the next round, along with Greece.
Against Russia, Cristiano comes on for Figo in the 78th minute and eleven minutes later he crosses from the left to Rui Costa, who scores an easy
goal. He starts against Spain and immediately unsettles the Red Fury’s defence, taking Puyol and then Raúl Bravo apart one by one. He creates chances, he shoots and he makes great passes to his team-mates. He does everything Scolari has asked of him.
In the quarter finals, it’s time to face England once again. Four years earlier in Eindhoven, Portugal beat them 3-2 thanks to goals from Figo (from nearly 40 yards), João Pinto and Nuno Gomes. Aside from the historic rivalry, Portugal-England sets the scene for three very interesting duels. The first is Scolari against Sven-Göran Eriksson. In the last World Cup Scolari was managing Brazil when they sent England home after an incredible 42-yard free kick from Ronaldinho which caught David Seaman off his line. The second duel is Figo-Beckham. The performance of the two Real Madrid stars in this tournament has been reflective of their season with the Whites. Figo has pulled out all the stops just when Portugal needed him most, while Beckham has been useful on occasion but more often than not has just been a bystander.
The third duel is Ronaldo against Rooney, perhaps the most interesting one in terms of speculating about the future. While the European tournament has marked the career end of veterans like Italy’s Vieri and Spain’s Raúl, it has also been a showcase for youngsters like Milan Baroš, Schweinsteiger and Robben. Rooney and Ronaldo have lived up to everyone’s expectations. In September, eighteen-year-old Rooney will be leaving Everton after signing a £25.6 million deal with Man United. He is in the starting line-up against Portugal, having already scored four goals – two against Switzerland and two against Croatia – making him the youngest goal-scorer in the history of the European tournament. And during some of England’s trickier moments the number 9 has emerged as a team leader.