Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo has expressed his love for his former club Manchester United. In a recent interview the player said:
‘I love Manchester,’ he says.
‘Everyone knows that – I have said it many times. Manchester is in my heart. I left many good friends there, the supporters are amazing and I wish I can come back one day.’
It is Ronaldo and he’s warming to one of his favourite subjects.
‘I am happy here in Real Madrid and have four more years, but in the future you never know because they treat me unbelievably there.’
And in typical Cristiano fashion, he had one more thing to say to Sportsmail. ‘I really did love being at Manchester United,’ he says. ‘Believe me, they will be a good team again, I’m sure of it. It is a great club.’
Once upon a time, Sir Alex Ferguson said the club would not spend fortunes on established talent. The club has since spent £150 million in a single transfer window on the proven capabilities of Angel Di Maria and Radamel Falcao among others.
Ronaldo has made guarded comments about the departure of Di Maria and some other Madrid exits but their loss, in his eyes is United’s gain. The player hasn’t been happy with the players the club has chosen to sell in the past two years but has been very professional about it.
‘I have strong opinions, but I can’t always say what I think,’ he later told Spanish reporters. ‘If it was up to me, I wouldn’t have done so. But if the president thinks the best thing for the team is to sign players and let others leave, we must respect and support the decision.
‘With new players, the style will change and it may change for better or worse.’
Ronaldo also believes the club will bounce back from their recent slump, the Portuguese international is known to be an avid follower of Red Devils both on television and online.
‘This can happen,’ he says. ‘Bad moments and good moments. Manchester is passing through a bad moment. Last year it was a horrible season and this year they haven’t started well, either.
‘But I do think they did well to buy Di Maria and Falcao. I think the team will be much better. I want to see them better because it is such a fantastic club and they deserve to be better.
‘Falcao is a very good signing. He is a very good player.’
Though some have said United should have strengthened in some other areas of the squad, most notably the defence, Ronaldo feels the club brought the right people in to do the job.
‘I don’t think Falcao is the wrong type of player for them.
‘He is a top player, so I don’t think it is a wrong buy. He will be a fantastic buy. Manchester have not started well, two points in three games, so they need quality players and Falcao is a quality player. And Di Maria,too.’
For Ronaldo, at 29 years old and having scored a scarcely believable 255 goals in 250 Real Madrid games, ‘better’ is the only option. Having just enjoyed arguably his finest season, in which he was awarded the Ballon D’Or and won the Champions League for a second time, last month he was named Europe’s best player.
When he’s asked to sum it up, his smirk says almost as much as his words.
‘When you are nominated for the best player in Europe, the Ballon d’Or, playing in the Champions League, there is so much pressure,’ he says.
‘You don’t know what will happen. This pressure is inside you — you always have it.
‘But really, the last year was just fantastic. Now the best player in Europe as well, that was fantastic for me. I had an opportunity to say thank you to my team-mates because without them individual awards are not possible.
‘My ambition now is to do the same stuff as last year, win the most important trophies, collectively and individually. I always want to do better than the year before.’