Cristiano Ronaldo: How did Roy Keane react to his Man Utd debut?

Cristiano Ronaldo was given the footballing education of dreams during his first spell at Manchester United.

While the five-time Ballon d’Or winner would have made a success of himself wherever he went during those crucial early years of his career, there’s good reason to think that choosing United specifically really put him on the road to superstardom.

Not only did Ronaldo benefit from having arguably the greatest manager of all time in Sir Alex Ferguson, but he also joined an elite dressing room who had won pretty much everything at the highest level.

From Gary Neville to Ruud van Nistelrooy and Paul Scholes to Rio Ferdinand, there were plenty of key figures in the United squad that Ronaldo could learn from to help master his craft.

However, it's hard to imagine that anyone in the Red Devils set-up will have helped to drill an elite mentality into Ronaldo's head better than Roy Keane.

Arguably the greatest leader that the Premier League has ever seen, Keane always demanded the highest standards from his teammates and endured as the driving force behind so many of United's most successful ever teams.

And despite Ronaldo and Keane's paths only crossing for about two seasons at Old Trafford, one brilliant impact that we do know the United icon had upon the club's new number seven was keeping his feet firmly on the ground.

Besides, without experienced heads like Keane keeping things calm, you could certainly have forgiven Ronaldo for getting swept up in all the hype that surrounded his move to England.

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Nevertheless, the mature and long-term way in which Keane viewed matters was apparent from the off with the Red Devils skipper having a very - how shall we say? - typical