Inside Ronaldo's first week back at Man Utd: Influencing youngsters and penalty discussions with Solskjaer

When Cristiano Ronaldo touched down at the private terminal in Manchester Airport last Thursday he was met by a familiar face. 

Darren Fletcher had arrived from a charity golf day, where he had been with Sir Alex Ferguson, to greet his former team-mate and welcome him back to Manchester United.

It was fitting that Fletcher, operating in his role as technical director, was there to greet the 36-year-old; he and Ferguson had played an integral role in getting the Portugal international to Old Trafford from Juventus. 

Manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said on Friday there was never any possibility of Ronaldo signing for Manchester City, but with talks taking place between Jorge Mendes and Pep Guardiola’s side, United pounced and a deal was struck. 

With Ronaldo heading off for international duty with Portugal, his medical was completed in Lisbon before he joined up with Fernando Santos’ squad. 

A yellow card, received for taking his shirt off having become the leading men’s international goalscorer of all time against Ireland, saw him banned from the next game. 

His flight to Manchester was brought forward and Euro 2016-winning coach Santos released him from Portugal duty early.

After a period of quarantine in his new Cheshire home, which he is sharing with partner Georgina Rodriguez and his four children, who flew into Manchester last Friday, it was back to a familiar haunt for Ronaldo - the club’s Carrington training base. 

Club sources have told Goal that this move is not about ‘reliving the past’ for Ronaldo but, instead, writing a new chapter. The similarities to his first Man United spell, however, were hard to ignore as he arrived for his first day of training. 

He drove his Lamborghini down the same dirt track and the same driveway and was met by the same familiar face on reception. 

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There were echoes of his first day at the club in 2003 as he met Solskjaer in his office too. That day, Ronaldo stood next to Ferguson in a bright Versace jumper, beaming ahead of his maiden training session. 

This time around the designer top was different, as was the manager and the circumstances around the transfer. When he first arrived 18 years ago, he was a teenager looking to impress. He returns as one of the most decorated - and most famous - athletes the world has ever seen. 

Solskjaer has said that the transition from being a team-mate to manager to Ronaldo has been easy so far due to the ‘mutual respect’ between the pair, but the Norwegian will have some difficult decisions and conversations coming up. There have already been chats as to who will be on penalty duty this season.

Furthermore, Ronaldo’s statistics following his first few training sessions have shown that there is no reason for concern over his pace - one of a number of points raised by doubters as to why Ronaldo would struggle in the Premier League the second time around. 

His arrival has created a buzz in the dressing room and, after meeting with Solskjaer on Tuesday, he trained with the contingent who were not on international duty. The likes of Mason Greenwood, Juan Mata, Donny van de Beek and Fred were all involved in his first session. 

The hope and expectation is that Ronaldo will be one of the leaders in the dressing room who can inspire younger members of the squad and three of Neil Wood’s Under-23s have already had the chance to train with the five-time Ballon d’Or winner. 

Full-back Alvaro Fernandez and forwards Joe Hugill and Hannibal Mejbri were among those present. 

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“Mason, Jadon [Sancho], Hannibal, Donny, Marcus [Rashford]... the young boys in this group have got some unbelievable professionals to learn from,” Solskjaer said about Ronaldo’s impact as a role model on the pitch. 

“You’ve got Cristiano, who has been one of the best players of all time, you’ve got Raphael [Varane] coming in, Juan Mata, Nemanja Matic, Paul Pogba, Bruno Fernandes. 

“There are so many players to learn from, how to deal with ups and downs in their careers and how to prepare. I’m sure I haven’t mentioned every single one here. Don’t kill me if I forgot some of them.

"When you have players like this, there’s no hiding place, because you’ll be told if you don’t do the right thing. 

“When I walked in the dressing room here when I played and Roy Keane saw me dip out of a tackle or not make the run, you were told.

“I ended up being one of them that told the players I played with. That’s how it should be at Man Utd. We should have some experienced leaders who put the demands down.

"It wasn’t always Sir Alex and it can’t always be me or the coaches. We’re lucky that we have players like Harry [Maguire] who has come in the last two years and been an unbelievable captain in terms of how he holds everything together, how he stood tall in the hard times.

"We’re now in a good position that the experience should be dripping down to the boys with aspirations to be as good as the players we’re talking about.”

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Hugill, Fernandez and Mejbri won’t be involved on Saturday against Newcastle but the opportunity for them to learn from Ronaldo is one of the reasons he was brought back to the club. 

On the training pitch, it has been four days of hard graft ahead of Ronaldo’s second debut at Old Trafford. His family have been settling into Cheshire life with walks in the countryside and son Cristiano Ronaldo Jr is back at school. 

Ronaldo has also created unprecedented commercial waves off the field. There have been daily queues outside the club shop with fans desperate to get their hands on his new No.7 shirt. Many official stockists have sold out and are awaiting a re-stock. 

Then there is the case of tickets for the big homecoming. Demand is so high that fans are offering thousands of pounds to get their hands on a ticket for his highly-anticipated return. 

Whether he starts or not is another matter. But Solskjaer has promised one thing; the 70,000 United fans in Old Trafford on Saturday will get to see their hero play. 

Ronaldo’s second Manchester United chapter is just getting started.