šØ Wayne Rooney on people calling Cristiano Ronaldoās 2008 season overrated:
āIāve seen people questioning Cristianoās 2008 season again, and I genuinely wonder how many of them watched us play that year.
I was there. I played alongside him. I saw what defenders were doing to try to stop him, and I saw what happened when they couldnāt.
I remember one game where Cristiano had two players following him almost everywhere. At one point, I said to him, āYouāve got two of them worried about you now.ā
He looked at me and said, āGood. That means somebody else is free.ā
And that was the thing people sometimes forget about him. Everyone remembers the goals, the tricks and the celebrations. But when teams started organising their entire defence around stopping one player, the rest of us benefited.
There were matches when youād look up and see Cristiano making another run, even though heād already made five or six without receiving the ball.
Iād tell him, āYou know you donāt have to chase every goal?ā
Heād say, āWayne, if I stop running, how am I going to score?ā
You couldnāt argue with him.
But Moscow is what I remember most.
Heād scored our goal against Chelsea. People forget that sometimes because of what happened in the shootout.
When he missed his penalty, I knew exactly what heād be thinking. Heād scored 42 goals that season, helped us win the Premier League, and suddenly he was standing there believing he might have cost us the biggest trophy of the year.
When Edwin saved Anelkaās penalty, everybody went crazy. We were European champions.
But Cristiano was crying.
I remember looking at him and thinking how strange football can be. A player can have the season of his life, score in the Champions League final, and still spend those last few minutes believing heās let everyone down.
Thatās how much it meant to him.
And thatās why I find some of the criticism ridiculous.
People sit there nearly 20 years later, looking at clips and statistics, trying to explain why it wasnāt that special.
We were playing against some of the best defenders in Europe. They knew what he wanted to do. Theyād spend the entire week preparing for him.
Then Saturday would come, and heād do it anyway.
Iām not saying we didnāt have a brilliant team. Of course we did. We had players who could win games all over the pitch.
But even in that dressing room, we knew Cristiano was doing something extraordinary.
The funniest thing is that people now use the fact that he played in such a good team against him.
Well, I was one of the players in that team. And I can tell you that having Cristiano alongside us made our jobs easier, not his.
If you want to argue about which individual season was the greatest, thatās fine. Football is full of opinions.
But donāt tell people who were there that what we watched every week wasnāt special.
I saw Cristiano win his first Ballon dāOr. Iāve also seen him win four more.
And I still think thereās something about that first one that people will never fully understand unless they remember the player he was before he became the Cristiano Ronaldo everybody knows today.ā
šØšššššš: France Football wanted to give a Ballon d'Or to Messi for his performance in the 2026 World Cup. But Lionel Messi lost all the individual awards and the World Cup Final 2026.
So Messi's PR launched a media campaign to get his fans to vote for Messi as the greatest Ballon d'Or winner of all time.
France Football made an award named "BOAT" - Best Ballon d'Or Of All Time. Messi won 8 Ballon d'Ors, and they wanted to give him another one to make it 9, and then the Super Ballon d'Or to make it 10. 10 for LM10. ā
They made it a ONE EURO fee for the voting system so that no one could vote for free and kids couldn't give votes. The people should be 18+ to vote because there are a lot of Ronaldo fans among young children. They get inspired by Ronaldo. They love Ronaldo.
But even after this criteria, Ronaldo's 2008 got 62% of the votes in just one day. They understood that Ronaldo might win. And they can't give another Ballon d'Or to Ronaldo. So they changed their award and statement overnight, saying that there is no physical trophy for "BOAT" and that it's just a fan poll.
What was equal to the Ballon d'Or became an online poll. And they knew that even if Ronaldo wins the BOAT, he will not go to take that. That would be an insult to France Football.
The story isn't even finished yet. Even after that, Ronaldo got 72% and then 75% of the votes for his 2008 Ballon d'Or, while Messi's 2012 is only the highest vote with 9%.
Then they stopped the voting for Ronaldo's 2008. You can't vote for that, but you can vote for Ronaldo 2017. But still, Cristiano Ronaldo won the BOAT, Best Ballon d'Or of All Time. šš
Ronaldo won the BOAT while only having 5 Ballon d'Ors, while Messi lost having 8. ā
Ronaldo is the only player in the history of football who won the Ballon d'Or 5 times and then exposed the Ballon d'Or publicly. š³
The people voted for the right person, and Ronaldo stopped another Ballon d'Or robbery.
#ronaldo #cristiano #BallondOr #GOAT
šØ Lisandro MartĆnez to CBS: āWe need more AMBITION, we need to talk more about WINNING the Champions League and the Premier Leagueā.
āI just expect MORE. I will not close my mouthā.
šØWhatever happens to Lisandro Martinez and his future at the club, the fans should have massive respect for him ā he said what needed to be said! š«”š“
#MUFC
š¤Æš¤Æā½ļøā½ļøā½ļøā¤ļøā¤ļø Wayne Rooney is a counter attacking machine.
That was so so so crazyš¤Æš¤Æš¤Æš¤Æā½ļøā½ļøā¤ļøā½ļøā¤ļøā½ļøā¤ļøā½ļøā¤ļøā½ļøā½ļø
Wowš¤Æā½ļøā¤ļø
šØ Sir Jim Ratcliffe on reportedly considering stepping down from Manchester United amid growing frustration:
š£ļøāI may have to walk away from Manchester United sooner than people expect if things don't change.
āI came here believing I could help rebuild this club, but I'm beginning to realise that one person cannot fix everything alone.
āMy co-owners and I don't always see eye to eye on what needs to change, and that is becoming a serious problem.
āYou cannot expect Manchester United to return to the top while people in positions of power continue to resist difficult decisions.
āI'm prepared to take responsibility for my mistakes, but I cannot keep fighting battles when everyone around me isn't ready for the same fight.
āSometimes, I question whether the people involved genuinely want the same future for this club that I do.
āI cannot promise supporters that everything will change because, honestly, I'm no longer convinced that it will.
āManchester United needs more than promises, commercial success, and people protecting their own interests.
āIf we cannot agree on a clear direction, then perhaps my departure would be better than staying in a situation where nothing improves.
āI refuse to spend years defending decisions that I don't believe will take this club forward.
āThe fans deserve owners who are willing to make sacrifices, accept criticism, and put Manchester United ahead of their personal interests.
āI never came here to be part of another failed project, and I won't pretend everything is fine just to protect my reputation.
āIf the resistance to change continues, I may eventually step aside and let someone else take responsibility. Manchester United is bigger than me, bigger than INEOS, and bigger than the Glazers.ā
šØNemanja VidiÄ on Lisandro MartĆnez potentially leaving Manchester United after speaking out against the clubās board:
āLet me tell you something, Manchester United board. If you think pushing MartĆnez out will solve this problem, then you havenāt understood anything. You are the problem!
This is a football club, not a dictatorship. A player should not be punished for telling the truth about what is happening behind the scenes. If his words make you uncomfortable, maybe itās because he has exposed something you donāt want people to see.
And to the fans attacking him, what exactly do you want? Do you want players to keep their mouths shut while this club continues to fall apart? Do you want them to smile, collect their wages and pretend everything is fine?
MartĆnez is one of the best defenders at this club. Look at his quality, his passion and what he brings to the team. Do you honestly think replacing him will fix Manchester United?
He is not asking for his teammates to be thrown out. He is demanding change! There is a massive difference.
Manchester United have fallen so far that speaking the truth has become a crime. That is shameful!
If the board cannot accept criticism, cannot fix the problems and cannot take this club forward, then what exactly are they still doing there?
This club belongs to its history, its supporters and its footballing identityā¦. not to the people running it today. If you cannot restore Manchester United, step aside and let someone else do the job!ā
šļøš£ļø SIR ALEX FERGUSON BACKING LISANDRO MARTINEZ
š£ļø"I have always believed that Manchester United is bigger than any individual, but that does not mean we should ignore the truth simply because it makes certain people uncomfortable."
š£ļø"When a player like Lisandro MartĆnez speaks about what is happening inside the club, the first question should not be whether his words are convenient. The first question should be whether he has a point."
š£ļø"I built teams that were expected to win trophies, not teams that were satisfied with simply participating. At Manchester United, second best was never the objective. We could lose a match, of course, because football is football, but what mattered was how we responded, the standards we demanded, and the hunger we showed afterwards."
š£ļø"That is what made this club special."
š£ļø"If MartĆnez believes that more should be expected from the technical leadership, then I want to know why. Why should a player who puts his body on the line every weekend be afraid to ask difficult questions? Why should the manager be expected to carry the entire responsibility for every failure while other people escape scrutiny? Football is a collective responsibility, and nobody at Manchester United should be too important to answer for their decisions."
š£ļø"Let me make something very clear: changing managers is not a magic solution. You can bring in one manager, dismiss him when results become difficult, appoint another, and repeat the same process for years."
š£ļø"But if the structures surrounding that manager remain ineffective, what exactly do you expect to change? A new face in the dugout cannot automatically repair poor recruitment, a lack of planning, or a club without a consistent footballing identity.
I have seen what happens when a club loses its standards. People begin making excuses. They start blaming individual players, then the manager, then injuries, then the schedule. Eventually, everybody has an explanation for why Manchester United are struggling, but very few people accept responsibility for fixing the problem.
That is not the Manchester United I knew.
š£ļøWhen I was in charge, there was pressure on everyone. Players had to perform. Coaches had to improve the team. Scouts had to identify the right players. The people running the football operation had to understand what the manager needed. Nobody could simply point at somebody else and say, 'That is not my responsibility.' We were all working towards one objective: making Manchester United successful.
š£ļøAnd if MartĆnez expected more from the technical director, I would tell him this: those are legitimate questions to ask. The technical leadership of a football club cannot simply stand in the background when things go wrong. If the recruitment is not delivering, if the squad is unbalanced, or if the manager is not being given the right tools, somebody must explain what is happening.
You cannot spend years talking about rebuilding and then act surprised when supporters become impatient. Rebuilding is not an excuse to abandon ambition. It is a process that requires intelligent decisions, clear leadership, and people who understand what Manchester United represents.