Patrice Evra has recalled how Sir Alex Ferguson turned Cristiano Ronaldo from a "YouTube player" into a Premier League superstar.
The Portugal international, now 37, joined Manchester United from Sporting Lisbon as an 18-year-old in August 2003. He scored just six goals during his debut season at Old Trafford but soon became prolific - finding the net 23 times during the 2006/07 campaign.
Ronaldo has often highlighted Ferguson's influence on his successful career, which has seen him win countless honours - including seven league titles, five Champions Leagues and Euro 2016 - and score 700 club goals for United, Sporting, Real Madrid and Juventus.
Ronaldo re-joined United in August 2021 and is looking to end the club's six-year wait for a trophy this season. Evra, who played alongside the forward during his first spell at Old Trafford, has recalled Ferguson's influence on Ronaldo.
"Sir Alex Ferguson had a massive impact on Ronaldo's career," Evra told Betfair. "There have been many phases in his career. When he started he was like a YouTube player, lots of skill, that's what I felt when I arrived at United.
"But, I also felt that there was a hunger and personality to show to people that he could be the best and he had big players around him, like Roy Keane."
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As well as Keane, Ronaldo had to impress the likes Rio Ferdinand, Gary Neville, Nicky Butt, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Paul Scholes. Evra added: "I remember one time early on Ferguson destroyed him. I think we played Chelsea and he didn't have a good performance.
"Ferguson told him, 'It's easy to score a hat trick against Bolton or Blackburn but what about the big games?' It was a tough hairdryer moment. Suddenly after that, I remember Cristiano started to score in the big games, then he became another player.
"Ferguson went further and told him that he's not a winger, that he's a striker and with his ability he had to score two or three goals a game and he didn't care about the tricks and skill, he said, 'Forget that, you need to score goals'. That season Ronaldo scored 42 goals.
"He was a goal machine, he didn't care about impressing people with skill and tricks, he was just focused on scoring goals. A lot of it is down to Sir Alex Ferguson, he had a massive impact.
"I remember we were always together in the gym and his work ethic was incredible. If we started training at 10, Cristiano would have been there at 8. When we finished the training session, everyone would be in the shower apart from Cristiano, who'd be on the pitch practising his free kicks. He had to work hard for it.
"People say I love Cristiano so much because he's my friend, no. I love the work ethic of Cristiano. That's what I admire the most."
