Page 61 - Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography

not saying, with that gesture: ‘I sorted him out, I got him sent off.’
We met at a villa in Portugal and had lunch. Jorge Mendes was present. Rooney calling him had
helped to change Ronaldo’s mind and put him at ease. I told Cristiano, ‘You’re one of the bravest
players to come to Manchester United, but walking away isn’t courage.’ I quoted the Beckham

situation in 1998: ‘It was exactly the same as this. They were hanging effigies of him outside pubs in
London. He was the devil incarnate. But he had the balls to fight it.’
Beckham’s first game after that incident had been against West Ham – the worst possible place to
go after such a drama with England – and he was terrific. ‘You’ve got to get through it,’ I told
Ronaldo. The next game in London for Ronaldo was at Charlton on a Wednesday night. To begin with
I watched from the directors’ box, where there was a local guy screaming unbelievable abuse: ‘You
Portuguese bastard’ was one of the politer epithets. Five minutes before half-time, Ronaldo received

the ball, danced round about four players and hit the underside of the bar with a shot. That guy didn’t
rise from his seat again. It deflated him. Perhaps he thought that his screaming had motivated him.
Ronaldo was fine, had a good start to the season and was getting on well with Rooney. These
young lads will have their clashes. Rooney was going to be sent off anyway, but equally Ronaldo’s
intervention was unhelpful. I was so relieved that the incident passed and we were able to keep him
in the side that was to go on and win the 2008 Champions League final in Moscow.

In the summer of 2012, I attended a Q &A hosted by the BBC’s Dan Walker, with Peter Schmeichel
and Sam Allardyce. A guy asked: ‘Who’s the better player, Ronaldo or Messi?’ My reply was: ‘Well,
Ronaldo’s got a better physique than Messi, he’s better in the air, he’s got two feet and he’s quicker.
Messi has something magical about him when the ball touches his feet. It’s as if it’s landed on a bed
of feathers. His low sense of gravity is devastating.’
Schmeichel thought Ronaldo could play in a bad team while Messi could not. That was a fair point.
But Messi would still produce great moments with the ball on his toes. Peter’s point was that Messi

depended on Xavi and Iniesta directing the ball to him. Ronaldo is much the same in the sense that you
need to keep feeding him. In all the times I’m asked I find it impossible to definitely say which is the
better player because to relegate either to second place would feel wrong.
Almost as important to me as his brilliant displays in our colours was that we stayed close after he
left for Madrid. Our bond survived our parting: a happy outcome in a game of transitory relationships.