Ronaldo on path to greatness

Sir Alex Ferguson says Cristiano Ronaldo’s exceptional recent form is one more step along the road to greatness, but he has urged the 21-year-old to keeping working hard to fulfil his potential.

Ronaldo is currently with the Portugal squad as they continue their Euro 2008 qualifying campaign. And Sir Alex believes the national team will see a more mature player in their ranks for the matches against Azerbaijan and Poland.

"I’ve seen a change in him this season,” said the Reds boss. “It's difficult to say whether what happened to him in the summer [at the World Cup] was a defining moment for the lad. But he’s probably been our best player so far this season.”

Ronaldo has terrorised Premiership defences this season, to the point that opposition manages can only off sympathy to their full backs for being unable to cope with his rampaging runs and mesmerising trickery. However, the level of his performances are of no surprise to Sir Alex.

"I always expected him to be a great player,” the Reds boss added. “I said that from the first time I had him in a training session. I could always see that greatness lay ahead of him.

"But he's got to keep working hard, he's got to keep practicing which he does do and he's got to improve his understanding of the game which he is doing."