"Dribbled past about 8 players" - Ex-Manchester United man reveals moment he realized Cristiano Ronaldo would be a superstar

Former Manchester United midfielder Nicky Butt talked about the exact moment when he realized that Cristiano Ronaldo would become a footballing great. Butt recalled a match where Ronaldo was outstanding, which convinced him that the Portuguese forward was going to become a legend of the beautiful game.

Both Cristiano Ronaldo and Nicky Butt once plied their trade for Manchester United. Interestingly, when Ronaldo made his debut for the Red Devils in 2003 against Bolton Wanderers, he came on as a substitute in the 61st minute of the match, replacing Butt. However, the players didn't spend a lot of time together at Old Trafford, as Nicky Butt left Manchester United the following season for Newcastle United.

However, the former footballer said he knew that the Portuguese forward was going to be a top player during the latter’s early years at Manchester United.

During a discussion with other pundits on talkSPORT, Nicky Butt was asked if he knew Ronaldo would be exceptional from the off. He said:

"I knew he had the talent to get there, but talent is different to actually doing it. You have to be a top human being to be a top top player in my opinion. I remember watching a game, I was at Newcastle, it was the Fulham game, and he just grabbed the game by the scruff of its neck. Dribbled past about 8 players and kept going. You just go 'wow he's gone onto the net level', that would have been 2006 when I thought he was one of the best in the world."

Former Liverpool player Danny Murphy echoed Butt’s sentiments, saying:

"I remember going to Old Trafford with Fulham. Ronaldo was on the right that day. That was the day I realized. They beat us 2-0, it could have been 22, couldn’t get near him."

Former Manchester United assistant manager says Erik ten Hag was right to ‘take on’ Cristiano Ronaldo

Former Manchester United assistant manager Steve McClaren believes Erik ten Hag was correct in "taking on" Cristiano Ronaldo as the Al-Nassr man didn’t meet his standards. McClaren returned to Manchester United for his second stint as an assistant manager in 2022 to join Ten Hag’s backroom coaching staff after first working as an assistant manager under Sir Alex Ferguson from 1999 to 2001.

In 2022, Cristiano Ronaldo and Ten Hag fell out after the Dutch manager benched him on multiple occasions. The decision didn’t sit well with the Portuguese forward and as he blasted Ten Hag and the club's hierarchy in an explosive interview, which led to his contract being mutually terminated.

However, Steve McClaren, who left Manchester United to become the Jamaican national team head coach, defended Ten Hag’s decision to stick to his principles. He told the Telegraph:

"I couldn’t fault Ten Hag’s approach. He really handled it very well. I said at the time he was the right man to go in. That was shown in the way he handled [the departure of Cristiano] Ronaldo. He came in with set standards. Set rules. Set way of playing. And if you didn’t run, you didn’t play. He was rigid on that. Which the Dutch are. He knew that was what was needed. There could be no flexibility, no way the players could manoeuvre [out of that responsibility]."

"This is what you had to do – or you didn’t play. And he took on Ronaldo, and quite rightly. Other managers have tried to adapt. Erik didn’t feel it was necessary to do that. Ralf Rangnick had tried and it hadn’t quite worked out and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer the same. So Ten Hag stuck to his guns and developed other players."