Cristiano Ronaldo 101

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]

Ronaldo scored a double to give Manchester United a 3-1 victory against Tottenham in the 4th round FA Cup game at Old Trafford.

It was a tight and exciting match. Tottenham were beaming with confidence after thrashing Arsenal in midweek’s Carling Cup semi-finals, and they gave United plenty of troubles from the start of the game.

Tottenham almost took the lead on 16th minute from a corner, but was only denied by Wayne Rooney on the line. It came no surprise when Robbie Keane scored the game opener on 24th minute, thanks to a fine move from Aaron Lennon.

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Cristiano Ronaldo has been challenged by Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson to hit 30 goals this season.

The Portuguese winger has already scored 23 times in all competitions this campaign for the reigning Premier League champions and heads the top-flight scoring table with 17 goals.

“With Ronaldo having scored 23 goals already, there is the potential for him to score 30 this season without question,” Ferguson said.

“He is not that far off and he has a strong chance of doing that.

“I’m sure that he is capable of scoring 30 league goals, though I think that is a different matter entirely.

“Achieving that would be more difficult and I don’t think that will happen. It is a big ask, but if he does manage it, I’ll pay him more money.”

[Skysports]

Ronaldo scored his first hattrick for Manchester United, and led the team to demolish Newcastle 6-0 in Old Trafford. Carlos Tevez scored a double while Rio Ferdinand was on the score sheet as well.

MU dominated the game from the start but the scoreline was surprisingly kept at 0-0. In fact they could have gone a goal behind if Michael Owen’s goal was not wrongly ruled as offside… but then, United had 2 penalty claims (one was obvious foul in the box) denied as well.

The 2nd half was a different story though; Manchester United finally convert their dominance into goals. Ronaldo opened the scoring on 49th minute with a cleverly taken freekick, and scored the other two on 70th minute and 88th minute.

The hattrick takes Ronaldo’s goal tally to 22 for the current season, just one short of last season’s 23-goals.

Manchester United chief executive David Gill insists the club would never sell Cristiano Ronaldo, amid reports Real Madrid are lining up a £50m offer.

“There’s no chance of us selling him, no way, whatever the bid,” he said.

“Cristiano signed a new contract last season to 2012 and we are not a selling club. (Manager) Alex Ferguson has never let a player go he didn’t want to.

“He is happy here. Alex knows Ronaldo’s mind and what he’s about - everything about him is Manchester United.”

[BBC]

Real Madrid aim to once again test Manchester United’s resolve to keep Cristiano Ronaldo after it emerged they were prepared to pay £45million for the striker.

The Spanish club’s president Ramon Calderon revealed his desire to land Ronaldo after failing to do so once before when the 22-year-old snubbed him to sign a new five-year deal at Old Trafford.

United are certain to turn down any offer, but Real see Ronaldo as the player to return them to Champions League glory.

Calderon said: “Who wouldn’t want to have in his team a player of Cristiano Ronaldo’s amazing talent? He is one of the best in the world.”

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Ronaldo missed a penalty on the weekend match against West Ham, and it proved a crucial miss as Manchester United stumbled 1-2 to the Hammers.

Ronaldo continued his fine form by scoring the opening goal in the 14th minute. United seemed close to seal the game when Jonathan Spector was alleged to have handle the ball in the box in the 2nd half… but Ronaldo missed from the spot kick (68th minute).

West Ham players were perhaps inspired by the miss and fought back… and deservingly scored twice (77th and 82nd minute) to take the lead. The scoreline was kept intact and West Ham won the match 2-1.

You don’t see Ronaldo missing penalties often… in fact this is his first miss as far as I can remember. Despite the miss, Ronaldo was still the better United player in the match… it was not a good performance from the Red Devils overall.

Manchester United showed no mercy for their former captain Roy Keane as they crashed his side, Sunderland 4-0 at the Stadium of Light.

United started without some of their key players, but they proved too much to handle for the Black Cats. Sunderland started the game decently and had a few chances, but couldn’t threaten United’s keeper. Experience tells that it would mean deep trouble for Sunderland, as United would be ready to pounce on when they started to control the rhythm of the game.

The Red Devils didn’t need to wait long, as Wayne Rooney scored the opener on 20th minute from a wonderful pass by Wes Brown. Rooney then turned provider on 30th minute… his cross found Louis Saha and the French didn’t waste the chance to make it 2-0.

Cristiano Ronaldo then sealed the game for United just before the half time whistle to make it 3-0.

The game was still very much under United’s control at the 2nd half… Alex Ferguson even had the luxury to substitute Ronaldo on 59th minute with Park Ji-sung, who was playing his first competitive game of the season after his operation.

Louis Saha’s 86th minute penalty was very much icing on the cake. Manchester United claimed the top spot of EPL and would stay there for at least a few days as Arsenal had only managed a draw with Portsmouth in a later match.