Leeds United striker Patrick Bamford has shared something that “really surprised” him about Cristiano Ronaldo when the footballing icon was at Manchester United.
Ronaldo continues to keep banging in the goal even if it is in Saudi Arabia with Al-Nassr, scoring a huge 44 goals in 45 games this term as well as creating 13 assists. He will be playing at Euro 2024 this summer.
The 206-time Portugal star is of course one of the biggest footballing icons the world has ever seen, and while much of his success came at one of Leeds United’s biggest rivals, he is still one of the best ever.
Bamford was discussing Ronaldo on his latest episode of the My Mate’s A Footballer podcast, and said that something really surprised him about the Portuguese star when in the tunnel at Old Trafford.
Bamford on what surprised him about Ronaldo at Man United
The Leeds striker was speaking a couple of weeks after defeat in the play-off final, the dust now settling on the club’s loss to Southampton which condemns Leeds to another year outside of the Premier League.
Bamford said he came across Ronaldo for the first time in the tunnel when injured, possible the 4-2 home defeat in 2021-22 at Elland Road in which Ronaldo’s height surprised him – and his lack of physicality.
“The one that really surprised me, Ronaldo. For some reason in my head, I thought he was my height but he’s smaller and he’s obviously ripped to shreds but he looks, not slim, but he’s not as big as I thought.
“He’s probably 6ft 1in. I met him when we played Man United, I was injured but I walked past him in the tunnel and I thought he’d huge and overpowering me. I had a good five seconds to admire him,” he said.
Ronaldo record against Leeds is also quite surprising
Ronaldo has played an enormous 1219 professional football matches and spent eight seasons in English football, but has somehow only faced Leeds twice. The first, back in 2003-04, a 1-0 away win at Leeds.
A game that has since gone viral somewhat for Leeds constantly kicking Ronaldo up in the air, or the winger throwing himself up in the air somewhat including an off-the-ball barge from David Batty.
The other, in which Bamford is referring to, saw Rodrigo and Raphinha get on the score sheet only for Fred and then Anthony Elanga to score two late goals and hand Manchester United a 4-2 win.