Former Manchester United player, Owen Hargreaves has revealed that Cristiano Ronaldo respects it when someone is good in an aspect of football.
Hargreaves recalled how he and Ronaldo both trained on free-kick before the Champions League final between Manchester United and Chelsea in 2008.
Hargreaves told BeIN Sports: “But to be fair we used to practise all the time and he knew I could take them.
“That’s the only thing I’d say, I always played in a team where we had world-class players, so as a young kid it’s hard to get on free-kicks even though you could do it. So if I ever got one, which wasn’t very often even at Bayern, I had to score, because if I didn’t score I wouldn’t get one for a while.
“But we used to practise all the time and Cristiano knew I could and I love that about him.
“I remember we played, I’d scored a couple, and we practised before the Champions League final against Chelsea that year, he was on one side of the box and I was on the other. I hit nine out of ten into the top corner, Edwin [van der Sar] was in goal.
“And Edwin came to me and said, ‘Owen, if we get a free-kick in the Champions League final you’ve gotta take it’. I said, ‘I can’t take it off Cristiano, that’s Cristiano Ronaldo’.
“Anyway, we get to the dressing room, we’re warming up to go out on the pitch before we go out, nobody is around, Cristiano walks over and says, ‘Owen if we get a free-kick today it’s yours, I saw you practising’.
“And that’s who he was. Everybody thinks he’s like it’s all about him and an egomaniac. But if you’re good at something he’s the first one to see that.
“And that’s why I got to take a couple that year because he knew I might score. I admire that about him, I really do.”
