Rio Ferdinand reveals how he knew Cristiano Ronaldo was serious about being the best
Ferdinand played alongside Ronaldo for six years at Manchester United
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Your support makes all the difference.Rio Ferdinand has revealed the lengths Cristiano Ronaldo went to early in his career to set him up for success.
Ferdinand and Ronaldo were teammates at Manchester United for six years, with Ronaldo emerging as a superstar at the club.
And Ferdinand had revealed that the Portuguese forward was the first player he saw truly invest in an entourage to help him become one of the world’s best.
“For Ronaldo, [he is] 34 now and he is still at the top and he has been in the top two players in the world for more than a decade,” Ferdinand told Goal.
“He was the first person I saw invest in a team. I went around his house and I saw about 10 people in his front room. I said, ‘Who are these people? What’s going on?’
“He said: ‘That’s my chef, that’s my physio, that’s the doctor and that’s my personal trainer’. He left Man United as the best player in the world.”
Ferdinand compared Ronaldo to another great sportsman in LeBron James of the NBA, who has similarly built a team around him to set him up for superstardom.
The former centre-half thinks young players should learn from their success and prepare in a similar manner to give themselves the best chance of sustained success, both physically and mentally.
“He was on the right track,” Ferdinand explained.
“They have both invested huge money in having the right team around them for their body and mind to perform at the highest level consistently.
“I think if you give young players advice, then I would say if you have the resources then invest in yourself like that.”
Ronaldo recently scored his 700th career goal, and is likely to surpass Ali Daei as the leading male international goalscorer of all-time.
He is among the leading contenders for the Ballon d'Or, along with Lionel Messi and Virgil Van Dijk, which is due to be announced on December 2.
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