In my estimation, one of the saddest stories in world football during the 2020s was Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to Manchester United. I think for a lot of people who didn’t watch Ronaldo’s time at Man United when it actually happened, they don’t understand how special his rise was. Everyone knew from the moment he stepped foot at Old Trafford that he could be something unique, but it wasn’t easy for him at first because he wanted to play so freely and so differently than what people were used to seeing in English football. It honestly rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, including some of his teammates.
But it wasn’t only Sir Alex Ferguson who took Ronaldo in and backed him to the fullest, believing in his talent. As a collective, the Manchester United fan base rallied around him in a way that they haven’t done so for a young player in recent years. And Cristiano rewarded them, becoming not only the most exciting player in the Premier League but also the most effective, taking Man United to the summit of world football at a time when Chelsea were a dominant force, Barcelona and Bayern Munich had all time great teams, and world football was genuinely more competitive.
So that was the backdrop Cristiano was coming back to in order to make his triumphant return to Old Trafford. He was leaving behind the ghost of a Juventus team that signed him in order to win the Champions League, neglecting the fact that their squad was just a bunch of dilapidated crapola of horrible free agent contracts and aging players who wouldn’t even be good enough to make mid table teams in Serie A.
Cristiano Ronaldo was the most important attacker to his team
I don’t know what it is about the modern football fan, but it feels like there are a lot of media heads and so-called social media influencers who just jumped on the bandwagon of the sport as a means of making money or advancing their careers/platforms/egos. But I feel like that’s what happened to Ronaldo in the 2021/22 season, because it was like half the Internet turned on him, whereas the rest of the fans in the stands were cheering on all the important goals he was scoring.
But that’s all Erik ten Hag needed, a year later, to frustrate Ronaldo, get him to do that ill-advised interview with Piers Morgan, and really sell people on the narrative that Ronaldo not running was the reason why Manchester United couldn’t win games. Nevermind the fact that Man United hadn’t been a successful club for years or the fact that Ten Hag’s idea of football and man management were complete garbage.
Because who needs facts anyway? Who needs to acknowledge that he scored 6 goals in 7 Champions League games and 18 goals in the Premier League? Only Son Heung-min and Mohamed Salah, in the primes of their careers and on significantly better teams with attacking players 10x better than Ronaldo’s around them, scored more Premier League goals that season.
Cristiano wasn’t holding anyone on Manchester United back
Goals win you games, and while the argument that a player can score goals to the detriment of their team if they don’t do other things holds true when lookin at Kylian Mbappe with PSG and Real Madrid, that argument doesn’t actually hold water. Because not only was Ronaldo well above the age of 30 when he signed with Manchester United, unlike Mbappe in the prime of his career, whereas Mbappe was holding back Ousmane Dembele, Vinicius Junior, Jude Bellingham, Lionel Messi, Neymar, and Vitinha, who was Ronaldo holding back at Man United in 2021/22? Bruno Fernandes who already had 10 goals and 6 assists? Jadon Sancho? Marcus Rashford? Mason Greenwood? Those three weren’t good enough to be Man United starters and barely did anything anyway. And look at where all of them are now in their careers: nowhere.
Cristiano was, like he was at Juventus, a scapegoat for the higher ups at the club and the fans incapable of critical thinking skills. He was brought in to stop the bleeding of mismanagement and paid for his desire to rebuild a team into a true juggernaut, just as he did before at Man United and Real Madrid in the prime of his career, with his legacy. It’s sad the way people chose narratives over facts and turned on a club legend, and I think people will truly realize how much of a disservice that was as time goes on and they look back on Ronaldo’s storied career in full.
Purveyor of footy since the 90s. Favor the Premier League and old school Serie A with a touch of Bundesliga. More than a touch. Professional writer for 20 years, covering every sport but now focused on the Premier League and world football. You won’t be able to guess my favorite team.