Brazilian TV show Esporte Espetacular is currently showing a weekly mini-series about the career of Cristiano Ronaldo, who’s now been playing professionallu for 15 years.
The latest episode, which was aired on Sunday, was about the player’s last years at Manchester United, from 2007 to his record transfer to Real Madrid in 2009.
And Globo didn’t have to travel far to find a good character to tell the story. Former Manchester United midfielder Anderson, who’s currently playing for Coritiba on a loan deal from Internacional, spoke about how Ronaldo helped after his arrival to the Premier League.
When he first moved to Manchester United, Anderson live with Ronaldo, and explained how it went: “Man, living with him is to work. It’s gym 24 hours a day. He’s a sensational person. He is a person who made us at ease, when he didn’t even know me and Nani, he left us practically as a brothers in the house, wouldn’t leave us lacking anything.”
Anderson also revealed a chat that he and Nani had with Ronaldo during which they were told they wouldn’t be playing so soon, with Sir Alex Ferguson wanting the players to adapt soon.
“He came to us and said: ‘look, you will arrive and you won’t play’. I said: ‘What do you mean we’re not going to play, the guy paid over thirty million for us, how won’t we play?’ And I only played in England two, three months later.
“I was already… hey, you’re bought by a club, you always want to play, you want to show your football.”
Anderson was largely held back by injuries at Manchester United, but still managed to make a mark on the club.
