Gary Neville used to be Manchester United's skipper when Cristiano Ronaldo still played for Sporting Lisbon, both he and Roy Keane had influence in what Sir Alex Ferguson decided when it came to signing players. Now that he has signed one of his most lucrative contracts at age 31, Neville wrote in Sky Sports about the first time he laid eyes on the young promise. The rest after Ronaldo arrived in Manchester, is as they say, pure history. 

Neville wrote: "What a player, I thought. After the match I remember sending a text to my brother, saying 'we need to sign him' and apparently there was a lot of talk about him on the coach after the game. Obviously players should never be involved in signings, but he certainly made everyone sit up and take notice. I'd never heard of him and I'd never seen him before that night, but there was a huge excitement among the players afterward."

But Ferguson had already beat all his players to the punch: "What we didn't realize is that the manager had been dealing with it for a period of time before then. Sir Alex Ferguson signed him shortly afterward. But I'll never forget that game against Sporting Lisbon and the chat among the players when they got back to Manchester. Poor Sheasy was the butt of a lot of jokes for being given a run-around. But I have to be honest, I felt for him. If I'd been playing that night he'd have done the same to me."

Photo credit: Cristiano Ronaldo