Ronaldo became United’s savior again by scoring the only goal of the match against Derby on Saturday.
Ronaldo scored on the 76th minute thanks to a nice run-and-cross from Wayne Rooney. That’s Ronaldo’s 22nd Premier League goal and his 31st in total of the season.
Manchester United footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has started libel proceedings over a newspaper article alleging he was fined £8,000 (€10,506) in one day for using his mobile phone during training.
Top London law firm Schillings announced that it has issued libel proceedings at the High Court against News Group Newspapers, owners of The Sun.
The libel claim follows publication of an article headed “Text-Mad Ronaldo fined £8k, Fergie’s Fury on phone ban. Exclusive”, which alleged that the footballer was fined £8,000 in one day by his manager, Alex Ferguson, for using his mobile phone four times during training.
Simon Smith, Ronaldo’s solicitor in London, said: “Our client is a professional footballer who takes his training very seriously.
“The Sun article wrongly accuses him of being unprofessional and he felt he had to take legal action in order to protect his reputation.” [Iol]
So… the ‘phone addication’ story is not true then?
Cristiano Ronaldo feels he is not given enough protection from referees and fears suffering a serious injury.
The winger was denied a clear penalty against Portsmouth in the FA Cup quarter final defeat at Old Trafford. That incident, coupled with persistent fouling throughout the game, highlights an oft-felt view that the Portuguese is not protected by referees.
“It’s very frustrating, the referee was unbelievable,” he told MUTV. “He didn’t want to give the penalty, he didn’t want to give yellow cards - I’m very disappointed.
“Refs don’t protect skilful players. I think about the Arsenal player (Eduardo) and I’m scared sometimes to do skills because some players do unbelievable fouls and the ref protects the defender, not the skilled player! It’s very disappointing and I’m thinking a lot about changing my game. When referees don’t give penalties, yellow cards or reds, it’s difficult to play.”
[Mufc]
Ronaldo scored his 30th goal of the season and probably the most important goal so far to give Manchester United a 1-0 victory against French side Lyon at the Champions League match.
United qualified to the quarter finals with a 2-1 aggregate, while securing their 10th straight home victory in the competition, equalling Juventus’ record set 11 years ago.
Ronaldo scored the goal on 41st minute in front of a chaotic goalmouth.
Both Rooney and Ronaldo scored a double to give Manchester United a 5-1 win against Newcastle at St James Park.
It was a good team performance from the Red Devils, but Newcastle really made MU’s victory a lot easier with their sloppy play. They seemed to lack confidence with the ball and made way too much mistakes. In fact, 3 out of the 5 goals could be prevented if they could show just a bit more steadiness when defending or when holding the ball.
It was a great game from Ronaldo though. He did well to assist Rooney with the game opener on 25th minute before bagging a goal on each half himself (45th and 56th minute), before Abdoulaye Faye crawled one back for United on 79th minute.
Rooney installed the lead just a minute later with his second on 80th minute. Saha then completed Newcastle’s misery in injury time.
The win closed the gap between the title racers, as Arsenal could only managed a draw against Birmingham in an earlier match. Manchester United are currently 3 points behind the Gunners.
Manchester United have complained to Uefa that winger Cristiano Ronaldo was dazzled by a laser beam ahead of their Champions League match at Lyon.
The incident allegedly occurred in the warm-up before the last-16 first leg tie but Ronaldo showed no ill effects during United’s 1-1 draw in France.
Television pictures suggested Ronaldo was also targeted when running with the ball during the first leg of the last-16 clash at Stade Gerland, which ended in a 1-1 draw.
[BBC]
Cristiano Ronaldo was fined £8000 in one day by Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson… for using his mobile phone during training.
The 23-year-old Portuguese winger was caught texting four times during a single session at the club’s Carrington complex.
Strict Fergie, 66, is tightening the screw on players who are not completely focused during the club’s midweek preparation.
He has been hitting his stars in the pocket with on-the-spot £2,000 penalties for every offence.
A United source said: “The players all respect Sir Alex’s discipline. He is not a man to be messed with.
“But a few of the players have been sneaking their mobile phones on to the training pitch to send the odd text message between sessions.
“Fergie and his assistants have been cracking down on it big time recently. They insist that mobiles stay in lockers and should not be used until training is finished.”
[Thesun]
According to Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor, his main rival for the Golden Boot has skills you would normally only see on a computer game.
Cristiano Ronaldo set English football alight last season, winning both Player of the Year prizes and scoring 17 goals in 34 Premier League appearances. If anything he is scaling even dizzier heights this term with 19 goals in 20 League games.
Adebayor is neck-and-neck with Ronaldo at the top of the Premier League scoring charts and has the utmost respect for the Manchester United star. The Golden Boot is clearly not Adebayor’s priority but, if he is to win it, he knows he has to eclipse one of the world’s finest.
“He is a player I like to watch,” admitted Adebayor. “He has a lot of quality and watching him is like watching something else, it is like playing on the PlayStation sometimes.
“He is an amazing footballer and I show him a lot of respect for what he has done this season. There are not a lot of players, especially midfielders, who can achieve what he has achieved.”
[Arsenal]
Arsène Wenger has revealed how close he came to signing Cristiano Ronaldo and suggested with some mischief that the player himself ought to tell the story of how he almost chose Arsenal over Manchester United.
“I knew about him, yes,” said Wenger. “We were very close (to signing him). Manchester United had a partnership with Sporting Lisbon when (the assistant manager) Carlos Queiroz came in - that made the difference. One day I will tell you more about the story and you will be surprised. You will have to ask him (Ronaldo) how close it was. We had him here. He was here much earlier. He could tell you that if he wants.”
[Guardian]
Sir Alex Ferguson has promised Cristiano Ronaldo a bumper pay rise if the free-scoring Manchester United winger can fire 13 more Premier League goals - giving him 30 for the season.
Ronaldo continued his remarkable goalscoring run with two in United’s 3-1 fourth-round FA Cup tie against Tottenham on Sunday, to take his tally for the season to 25 in 27 games.
He has 17 goals in the Premier League, five in the Champions League and three in the FA Cup.
Although boss Fergie believes it is unlikely his Portuguese attacker will hit the 30- goal mark in the Premier League this season, he has promised the £110,000-a-week star even more money if he reaches the milestone.
[Mirror]