When Manchester United first signed an 18-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo in 2003, he was a rough diamond of a tricky edge, whose electric feet were incredible to look at but not always as effective.
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When he left in 2009, he was a game changer of epic proportions, whose polished abilities covered the full spectrum of attacking attributes.
As a player whose greatest asset was his technical skill, Ronaldo developed into a top athlete, for whom enormous power and athletics soon became an even greater part of his armor.
Ronaldo physically matured a few years into his Man Utd career ANDREW YATES / Getty Images
From a young age he was a good nod to the ball; One of Ronaldo’s earliest United goals was a real try in the FA FA 2004 final against Millwall, after haunting into the penalty area without being challenged and planting the ball in the net with his forehead.
Within a few weeks, the boy continued to score a similar goal for Portugal against Greece in the opening match of Euro 2004. When wingers score, it usually goes unnoticed to the back post, and Ronaldo was no exception at the time.
But when he matured and developed physically, honed in the gym with strength and cardio as much as ball work outside, Ronaldo became much more than a regular edge tip.
Ronaldo was a game changer allround 2007/08 | Shaun Botterill / Getty Images
His explosiveness resulted in a massive increase in goals almost overnight and drove United to the Premier League title in 2006/07 after a four-year drought. He rose this one further level in 2007/08 and went from 17 in the league to 31. United won the Premier League again and also conquered Europe in the Champions League for the first time since 1999.
If only there could be a single moment to best illustrate Ronaldo’s transformation during the first part of his career into an all-round forward, it would be the phenomenal ballhead that set United on the road to a quarter-final victory over Roma.
This was different from the previous headlines against Millwall and Greece because of the great power behind it, the power to generate the huge leap and hit the defenders to the cross, compared to the others when his only focus was to steer the ball on goal.
The art of jumping! ?
? ️ #OnThisDay in 2008 ⚽ # MUFC #GoalOfTheDay pic.twitter.com/RETf4a1JfS
– Manchester United (@ManUtd) April 2, 2021
Ronaldo abolished all the last strips of accusations of being a “soft” winger as he stepped up to face the ball knowing that a heavy physical collision was likely whether he got there or not. The hit and the fall that inevitably came when he drove the ball into the back of the net, the wind blew him out, but he had done his job by making a crucial away goal that placed his team in front.
Ronaldo was a game changer so often that season, remaining one of the very best in United’s great history, and found a way to use his ever-increasing range of abilities to make the key shift in a given moment. By then he was so far away from the frustrating teenager who first arrived in Manchester and was already well on his way to becoming one of the greatest of all time.
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