Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has revealed that Cristiano Ronaldo was embarrassed about his shooting ability when he arrived at Old Trafford.
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The retired England international was speaking to his country's U16 team and used his former teammate as an example of the hard work required to make it to the top of the game.
"He didn't have a great shot when he came. He had a powerful shot, but it went everywhere," Ferdinand said, as quoted by the Daily Mail.
"He used to go out after training, he was embarrassed. He used to have a bag of balls and went to a pitch right over the other side so he could hide behind the trees.
"It was 'Ronnie, where you going man?' 'I'm just going over there.' 'What's wrong with you?'
"But after a few months, it was 'Oh, he does shooting, does stepovers.' He used to put weights on his feet and do these stepovers.
"(We said) 'Are you mad, what are you doing?' until he started bamboozling people."
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Ronaldo arrived at United in a deal worth €17.5 million (R264 million) in 2003, and ended up scoring 118 goals in 291 games for the Red Devils.
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