Owen Hargreaves reveals Cristiano Ronaldo's first words to him at Manchester United which came true

09/13/2024 06:18 AM

Cristiano Ronaldo isn't just one of the best-ever at scoring goals, but also at manifesting the future.

Football's all-time top scorer has always had lofty ambitions in the game and he's transferred pretty much all of them into reality on the pitch.

At the age of 39, Ronaldo recently reached a new landmark of 900 career goals with an effort against Croatia in the Nations League and has already set himself the target of 1000.

All signs are that the Al Nassr striker will certainly achieve it, given his track record of ticking off every ambition he's laid out.

Former teammate Owen Hargreaves knows that just as well as anyone, revealing one of his first conversations with Ronaldo turned into a bold prediction.

The former England midfielder arrived at Old Trafford from Bayern Munich in 2007 and was instantly taken aback by his new teammate.

Speaking to talkSPORT, Hargreaves said: "I remember seeing him in the gym all the time just working, working, working.

"He said to me one of the first days in the gym 'I want to be the best player in the world this year' and he hadn't won the Ballon d'Or yet.

"We won the league and the Champions League and he won the Ballon d'Or."

Ronaldo was coming off a career best 23 goals in 53 games when he made the comment, but no one could have expected what was about to come.

The Madeira-born megastar would break out with a massive 42 goals in 53 games in that double winning campaign, triggering a new era of individual dominance led by himself and Lionel Messi.

Hargreaves added on that key conversation: "That was his mindset, he planted a seed and it grew. I've got so much respect for the fact he's still playing the game at his age when we're all broken and injured in a studio somewhere. 

"I've got a lot of love and respect for him. I got to see him work every day and I've got to see what he puts into his craft.

"He's just a machine. People look at him and are critical of him for whatever reason and I don't understand that, he's an incredible athlete and even better pro.

"You've got to think with the talent he's born with, the size, the strength, the skill that he has he was the guy working on his game more than anyone. 

"So if you're a young kid and you want to become great in any walk of life, you might have a skillset but you're only going to get there through hard work. 

"After training he would get the ball, do step overs, do free-kicks and then he'd go to the gym and work out and do weights and then he'd go and get in the ice bath and he ate right and he did that every day. 

"If you're not of his mindset and not as dedicated as him he doesn't have much patience for that and I respect that."