Rio Ferdinand has revealed that Sir Alex Ferguson’s legendary hairdryer treatment left Cristiano Ronaldo in tears.
Fergie’s rollickings at underperforming stars became a thing of legend, with plenty of footballing icons finding themselves on the receiving end – in David Beckham’s case quite literally, as a boot was infamously kicked at the future England captain. And speaking in a preview clip for the BBC documentary Sir Alex, which airs on Boxing Day, Fergie’s former skipper at Old Trafford, Rio Ferdinand, has spoken about a young Cristiano Ronaldo finding himself feeling the full force of the manager’s fury.
The Portuguese superstar joined United from Sporting Lisbon as an 18-year-old in 2003, but it took him time to settle – and Fergie was keen to stamp out any issues with the forward’s ego at an early stage. Speaking in the BBC documentary, Ferdinand explained: “We’d been to Portugal and played a couple of games and Cristiano hadn’t played well. He was young and tried too hard, I remember that we played Benfica and the manager ripped into Cristiano. He said ‘who do you think you are’ and told him ‘you’re coming here trying to prove everybody who you think you are, you think that you’re a superstar’.
“I remember Cristiano in tears in the changing room. And I was like woah, this manager doesn’t care who you are. But then you look at the player that Cristiano became. He needed moments like that, and the manager knew that he could be soft and nice with him. But that he had to be hard with him as well to get him to where he got to, as the world’s best player.”
Fergie’s relationship with the Portugal star was a special one, with Ronaldo telling United’s website in 2021: “There were so many beautiful moments that we had together. Not just winning things. But in my heart I keep the most difficult things. Probably he doesn’t remember, but I will say it because it’s a beautiful story. One day, my father was in hospital, and I was so emotional, very low. And I spoke with him and he said: ‘Cristiano, go there for two or three days.’
“We had difficult games [coming up] and I was a key player in that moment. He said: ‘It will be tough because we have difficult games, but I understand your situation and I’ll leave you [out] and you can go and see your father.’ For me, these are the most important things.”
Ronaldo would go on to become a modern day United great, scoring 118 goals in 292 games during his first spell with the club – and lifting the Champions League and three Premier League titles, before leaving for Real Madrid in a then world record £80m deal.
He returned to Manchester after nine glittering seasons in Madrid and three in Serie A with Juventus, but his second spell was a frustrating one – and he left the club following a fall-out with boss Erik Ten Hag for a money-spinning switch to Saudi Arabian side Al Nassr, where he’s still banging in the goals at the age of 39.
Sir Alex comes to the BBC iPlayer on Boxing Day.