Adithya Shivpink

🚨 Sir Alex Ferguson on Cristiano Ronaldo’s 2008 Ballon d’Or winning season: “I’ve managed some wonderful footballers, but Cristiano’s 2007–08 season was one of those occasions when you could see a player moving into a different category. We already knew he was exceptional. The question was how much more he could give us. I remember speaking to him before that season. I said, ‘Cristiano, you’re becoming a very good player. But I think you can become the player everybody else is measured against.’ He asked me, ‘What do I have to do?’ I told him, ‘Start deciding matches more often. Don’t just be the player people enjoy watching. Be the player they’re frightened of playing.’ And he took that seriously. You have to understand what our team was like then. We had Rooney, Tevez, Scholes, Carrick, Giggs, Rio, Vidic, Evra. There were leaders everywhere. Nobody was going to carry that dressing room on his own. But Cristiano gave us something different. I remember an opposition manager speaking to me after a match. He said, ‘Fergie, we spent two days working on how to stop your number 7.’ I asked him, ‘And did it work?’ He looked at me and said, ‘Well, you’ve just beaten us.’ That’s what Cristiano was becoming. There were matches where teams were frightened to let their full-back go forward because Cristiano was waiting behind him. They’d put another midfielder across to help, and suddenly we’d have space somewhere else. Then he’d come inside and score anyway. 31 Premier League goals from a wide player. 42 in all competitions. Those numbers were extraordinary, but the circumstances mattered just as much. We were fighting Chelsea for the league. Every point was important. There was no period when we could afford to relax and simply enjoy how well he was playing. And in Europe, the pressure was enormous. I remember telling the players before the Champions League final that we hadn’t come all that way to admire the occasion. Cristiano scored against Chelsea in Moscow, and I thought his header was magnificent. He rose above his marker and gave us the lead. Then came the penalties. When he missed, I knew how badly it would affect him. He was a young man who expected an enormous amount from himself. After Edwin saved Anelka’s penalty, I went looking for Cristiano among the celebrations. I said to him, ‘Look at me. We’ve won.’ He was still emotional. I told him, ‘You scored our goal tonight. You’ve helped us win the league. And now you’re a European champion. Don’t allow one penalty to make you forget what you’ve done.’ That was important to me. Football can be terribly cruel to players who care as much as he did. One moment can convince them they’ve ruined everything, even when they’ve spent an entire season doing the opposite. Later that year, he won the Ballon d’Or. I was delighted for him, but I wasn’t surprised. And there’s something people should remember about that award. Manchester United hadn’t had a Ballon d’Or winner since George Best in 1968. Forty years. Think about the footballers who’d represented this club during those years. Bryan Robson, Eric Cantona, Roy Keane, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes. Wonderful players. And here was a young Portuguese lad who’d arrived from Sporting, now bringing that honour back to Manchester United. I remember congratulating him and saying, ‘Well, you’ve got your Ballon d’Or now.’ He smiled. I asked him, ‘Are you satisfied?’ He said, ‘No, boss. I want another one.’ I thought, there you are. That’s Cristiano. People can spend the next 20 years debating whether somebody else had a better season. That’s what football supporters do. But I know what I saw. I saw a young winger become the most decisive attacking player in England, help us retain the Premier League, score in a European Cup final and finish the season as a champion of Europe. And I had the privilege of watching it happen from the touchline. You don’t forget a season like that.”