Cristiano Ronaldo once cost Sir Alex Ferguson £400 after the Manchester United boss bet that he couldn’t score 15 goals in one season.
Back in the 2005/06 season, a young Ronaldo scored nine times and racked up seven assists from 33 Premier League appearances. As a new challenge, the iconic coach told the winger that if he scored 15 goals then he’d receive a £400 payday out of Ferguson’s own pocket.
Ronaldo took on this bet happily and had already scored 13 goals by December 2006, including three successive braces against Aston Villa, Wigan and Reading. Following his double against Villa, the then-21-year-old star told the media that his aim this campaign was to “beat” Ferguson by scoring more goals.
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He said: “To beat the manager is my ambition and I want to carry on. I want to score more goals.”
Another goal and assist came in United’s 4-0 win over Watford, and a single penalty versus Tottenham Hotspur in yet another 4-0 victory was the magic number 15 for Ronaldo. However, Ferguson joked that strikes from the spot didn’t count when questioned by Sky Sports’ Geoff Shreeves after the game.
The Scotsman said: “Penalties don’t count. Oh well, I’ll need to go the bank.”
Ferguson also praised Ronaldo for his determination to be involved in the game, and how this gave him his £400 reward in the end. He said: “It’s fantastic, the boy has come on great, he’s got the courage to want the ball.”
The boss also wasn’t shy from criticising the winger, in order to keep his feet firmly on the ground. Ferguson added: “I thought he played in the early parts of the match he was careless but once he got more of the ball and I think he improved because he had more of the ball.
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(Image: Matthew Peters/Manchester United via Getty Images)
“I think he’s that type of player where you have to service him and get the ball to him and get him working in the game. He’s not the player who plays in the fringes, he’s a player who has to be involved all the time.”
The Portuguese forward went on to score 23 goals in 53 appearances for United that season, assisting his teammates 14 times as the Red Devils marched to a Premier League title.
Racking up 17 Premier League goals, Ronaldo ended up third in the Golden Boot race, while Chelsea’s Didier Drogba won the award with 20 in total. Blackburn’s Benni McCarthy was in second with 18, and tied for fourth were Wayne Rooney and Charlton’s Mark Viduka, both bagging 14 goals.
(Image: John Peters/Manchester United via Getty Images)
Ronaldo was just warming up in goal-scoring however, as he rocketed to 42 goals in all competitions the very next season – in just 49 appearances for United.
The Portuguese icon then transferred to Real Madrid one season later, and scored an astonishing 450 goals across nine seasons. Ronaldo’s total goal count stands at a staggering 763 goals in 1,017 professional appearances, including 240 assists.
Now scoring for fun in Saudi Arabia for Al Nassr, the 39-year-old scored his 900th career goal on Thursday night for Portugal and shows no signs of retiring any time soon.