THE SECRETS OF RONALDO’S FREE-KICKS

DEVELOPMENT

WHEN Cristiano arrived at Manchester United in 2003, Ryan Giggs was on free-kicks. But Cristiano took on challenges like nobody else — he always wanted to be the guy who found out through trying. He did it every day after training with Giggs and Wayne Rooney. The first challenge was to be better than his team-mates. He rose to that. Once he mastered it, he liked people to be watching and talking about it. He also insisted on doing it against the best goalkeepers. He wouldn’t have a youth-team goalkeeper in nets. He wanted to score against Edwin van der Sar. He asked the goalkeepers about their psyche: finding out what they thought — what they found difficult.

THE STANCE

WITH free-kicks, people used to just put the ball down, walk away, run up and hit it. Cristiano changed that. He brought in a more dynamic showmanship. He placed the ball, his concentration level high, then he took his certain number of steps back so that his standing foot was in the perfect place to ensure he connected with the ball in the sweet spot. Cristiano is the ultimate showman. He always had that slight arrogance. When he pulled up those shorts and showed his thighs, he was saying: ‘All eyes on me and this is going in.’ He understood the marketing side of it all — that the world was watching when he strode up and placed the ball.