The Second Half Read Free

out of this one I was quite relieved because I was knackered; we all were – jet-lagged. I remembered sitting beside Ryan Giggs in the dugout, and the two of us were laughing at some of the other lads out on the pitch.
    We were playing Sporting Lisbon pre-season, to celebrate the opening of their new stadium, and I saw how good Ronaldo was that day. He was playing for Sporting and he was up against John O’Shea. Sheasy ended up seeing the club doctor at half-time because he was having dizzy spells; he was being twisted inside-out.
    The club had been watching Ronaldo, and I think they concluded negotiations after the game. We always joked with Sheasy that he’d sealed the deal by playing like a fuckin’ clown against him. In fairness to Sheasy, he was jet-lagged, like the rest of us.
    Ronaldo arrived for the start of the 2003–4 season, and I liked the lad straightaway. He had a nice presence about him, and agood attitude. What impressed me most was that he’d been given the option of staying in Lisbon for another year, on loan, but he said no; he’d come over to Manchester straightaway. I thought it was a good, brave decision – because he was only seventeen. After the first few days, watching him train, my reaction was, ‘This lad is going to be one of the world’s greatest players.’ I didn’t say it publicly, because I’d always be wary of building a player up too early – or knocking him down.
    He looked like a player. You have to look the part, and he did. Zidane looked like a player – and Ronaldo looked like a player. The shape, the body language – they were there. A bit of arrogance, too. But he’d a nice way about him; he was very likeable. We forget that he was very heavily criticised when he first came on the scene. He was going down too quickly when tackled, his final product wasn’t good enough. But – again – he was only seventeen, a kid. I was playing youth football for Rockmount, in Cork, at that age. He was amazing. He was immediately one of the hardest working players at United. Most of the players I knew worked hard, but Ronaldo had the talent on top of the work rate.
    He was good-looking and he knew it. He was vain in that sense – at the mirror. He was a big lad, a big unit. I’d think, ‘Good on yeh.’ Looking at some of the other lads in front of the mirror, I’d think, ‘Yeh fuckin’ nugget.’ But Ronaldo had an innocence to him, and a niceness. I don’t think he ever slackened off, or that he was ever more worried about the mirror than his game. I always felt that football was his love. He’s still criticised for going down too easily when tackled, and he was hammered for winking after Wayne Rooney was sent off in England’s game against Portugal in the 2006 World Cup. But that’s the game, and he plays it. It’s embedded in the foreign players, in their style of play – winning a free-kick, getting an opponent sent off. It’snatural to them. If they get tackled near the box, they’re going to go down.
    Everyone loves the Gazza stories, the tragedies, but it’s great to see a player fulfil his potential. Ronaldo had a lot of critics but I think people just got tired of chipping away, and conceded that he was due a bit of credit. You could see it as unfortunate that he’s been around at the same time as Messi, but Messi gave him a target – ‘I want to be better than him.’
    Younger players bring a different energy, a lack of fear; they’ll try things. I was thirty-two at the start of the ’03–’04 season, but it wasn’t like I was thirty-eight. I didn’t feel that I was being pushed aside. But, all the same, I knew that the club was like a machine – the Ronaldos would come in, and the Rooneys. When I was a young player myself, I’d seen Bryan Robson and Steve Bruce leaving. So when you reach the age I was now, you’re always looking at the exit door. I wasn’t fearful, or threatened. There was that understanding: this is the game. You reach