Cristiano Ronaldo was a different breed at 20: Rise to GOAT status & history-making longevity explained by former Manchester United team-mate

The Portuguese superstar rose to prominence on the back of his 2003 move to Manchester United. It was during his time at Old Trafford that Ronaldo collected the first of his five Champions League winners’ medals and Ballons d’Or – leading to a record-breaking transfer to Real Madrid.

Ronaldo has gone on to star for Los Blancos, Juventus and Al-Nassr, while also taking in a second spell with the Red Devils. A standing among the all-time greats has been secured, with the evergreen frontman still going strong for club and country as he prepares to turn 40.

Those that have worked alongside Ronaldo have been quick to praise his relentless work ethic and desire to be the best, with ex-United goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak – speaking in association with 888sport – telling GOAL when asked what makes CR7 special: “I was one of many hundreds of players that he worked with. I hear people talk about him, colleagues and different players, and they are all quite similar in judgement. He is a top professional and always has been.

“As a young player, which can be a problem at times, he already knew that this is the vital key to his long-term career – to be a top professional. When you are young, 20 years old, sometimes your body is adapting and you recover straight after the game and you can play game after game. Some young players think it is always going to be like that. At some point in their career, the price comes – injuries, longer recovery and they can’t catch up with the younger players. He was the one that understood that straight away and was a great example.

“From my perspective, I had four years with Cristiano at Manchester United at one of the best times when he went to the top. From the time that he came to the club, he was young and not a fully developed player, but he became a top player in the world that many of the best teams tried to sign. I was watching him all the time and it was amazing.

“At United at the time, there were many players like that – players with vision and with potential to become top players, and they didn’t make it. The desire wasn’t there. If the desire fails, in day after day work – preparation, mentality of waking up in the morning and going to sleep early and drinking enough water, the time when you are not in the club and surrounded with the physios and the people who do that for you. Most of the time you are at home between games and you could tell that he never really drank alcohol, he was always fresh in the mornings because he had been sleeping well. He was preparing for the games in the same way.”

Polish shot-stopper Kuszczak went on to say of methods that have not changed throughout Ronaldo’s record-breaking career: “When I went from West Bromwich Albion to Manchester United, at the time the biggest club in the world with top players, it didn’t matter how well he played, he was always the same.

“After I played a few games and did well, you think it is always going to be like that and it’s easy to put aside your everyday structure of hard work. He never changed. He went to the game, scored a hat-trick, an amazing goal, and would grow naturally as he got more respect. He started to become the best player in the world, but the mentality never changed.

“It doesn’t matter what you do, it is always the same. The top professionals in sport – in basketball or tennis or whatever – the top guys always behave the same way. When they do well, they are quiet and keep doing what they did. In more difficult times they put in even more effort to try and change something – they don’t hide and they take the challenge.

“People talk about his professionalism and work, but I think his mentality was top at the time. These days when you see so many good players, they quickly become international stars and then they change clubs from one to another and disappear. If they had more focused people around them, stuck to the life, then it could be different but they forgot the life and the purpose. This is the problem. Ronaldo was a great example of what you should do and how you should behave.”

There is no sign of Ronaldo stopping any time soon, with a big decision on his future fast approaching as a lucrative contract in the Middle East runs down. He is expected to play on until at least the next World Cup in 2026, with there a desire on his part to take a history-making tally of goals beyond 1,000.