Cristiano "Rocket" Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo is a name that everyone loves at Old Trafford. This 23 yr old is having the footballing world at this feet. Signed as a largely unknown youngster in 2003 for a fee of £12.24 m he was given the legendary "Number 7" by Sir Alex when Ronaldo asked for Number 28. And Ronaldo's capture was dramatic. Manutd team which had gone to Portugal for a pre season tour was impressed with him and they signed him the night before Sporting Lisbon were to play United and it seems Ronaldo was convinced by join United by the then Manutd players and they returned to Manchester along with Ronaldo. When he had signed for Manutd he had played just 25 games for his parent club Sporting. Ronaldo's life at OT started steadily and he was beginning to make an impact at the club and that's when the world cup 2006 came.


His on filed bust with Rooney in the quarterfinals resulted in Rooney being sent off and England lost the game in penalties, Ronaldo scoring the winning penalty. And all expected Ronny to leave England and Sir Alex feared the most as his youthful side was in danger of losing a gem. But he was convinced to stay at United and after that a new dimension of Ronaldo's play was unleashed.
He started to be cruel in front of goal and notched up 23 goals in the 2006-07 season ending as the joint top scorer with Rooney. All the critics and crowd taunts were answered on the pitch by Ronaldo who seemed to get better with the crowd against him and that resulted in Manutd regaining the EPL title after 2003 and they also reached semi finals of the Champions League and lost in the FA cup finals. Overall it was a successful season for the Red Devils and Ronaldo won all sorts of awards - 14 in total and he was runner up to Kaka in the European Player of the year and 3rd in World player of the year.


And by the start of 2007-08 season many predicted that Ronaldo would not match his performance of the previous season. And doubts were raised as United struggled for goals at the start of the season and Ronaldo sent off against Portsmouth. But his 1st goal of the season against his old club Sporting in the Champions League set things rolling. Since then he simply has been irresistible scoring nearly in every match and he unleashed his new weapon "Ronaldo Rocket" - the unstoppable free kick, something none of the pundits have been able to find how he does that. He surpassed George Best's record of 32 goals for a winger and is currently on 34, a figure that is simply beyond the imagination for a winger. With Ronaldo laying to rest the transfer speculation after signing a new 6 year deal worth £44 million Manutd fans can expect more fireworks from this wizard in the coming years..........