Manchester United legend Louis Saha labelled his former teammate Cristiano Ronaldo as a ‘genius’ when the duo played together at Old Trafford.
The Red Devils snapped up the precious talent from Sporting C.P. in the summer of 2003 for a then-record fee of £12million as the most expensive transfer for a teenager. Manchester United’s legendary boss Sir Alex Ferguson was interested in buying young superstars with potential at the time and the Portuguese attacker was on the wishlist of many top European clubs at the time.
Few would have predicted the success Cristiano Ronaldo went on to have during his time at Manchester United and then at Real Madrid but Louis Saha felt that the 5-time Ballon d’Or winner was tipped for greatness at a young age. Saha joined Manchester United in January 2004 and was mightily impressed with Ronaldo’s ability to remain focused and demand extra from himself.
While speaking to MUTV the 41-year-old Frenchman revealed his admiration and praise of Cristiano Ronaldo terming the 35-year-old Juventus star as a ‘genius’ for wanting to work on his ability and tweak his game to be better than the rest, “He always improved but I would say that his ways never changed [as a person]. Throughout his career, you see the same dedication that he had when he was 18, maybe with less confidence as people were challenging him, and he had to prove that he was the best player. But to have that type of confidence to train, to work hard and to be consistent, no matter what people say, that was just an amazing skill. It was better than having talent because of the way he was able to analyse, at that age, and grow and maintain those qualities – for me, it was genius.”
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Ronaldo won three Premier League titles with Manchester United and one Champions League title in 2008 before making the move to Real Madrid in 2009.
