Is Cristiano Ronaldo a United Legend?

Machine Elements

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Of course not. A player who saw himself "a modern slave" to stay at the club even when we're the best in the world and chose to give his best years to another club cannot be a legend at this club no matter how good he was for us.

It's a crying shame we still have his worshippers to this day and still chanting his name in the stands is one of the cringiest things I saw in football.
 

lewwoo

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No. Jumped ship the first chance he had. Madrid legend. To suggest otherwise is embarrassing.
 

Raoul

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Depends on how you define the word LEGEND. As good as he was I wouldn't stick that label on him.
Indeed. Legend is a subjective term, which is little more than asking someone who fond their memories of a particular player are.
 

Stretender

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No. Jumped ship the first chance he had. Madrid legend. To suggest otherwise is embarrassing.
I
Of course not. A player who saw himself "a modern slave" to stay at the club even when we're the best in the world and chose to give his best years to another club cannot be a legend at this club no matter how good he was for us.

It's a crying shame we still have his worshippers to this day and still chanting his name in the stands is one of the cringiest things I saw in football.
Bang on. I wonder why some people watch football. They seem obsessed with individual players rather than the club.

He acted stupid towards the end of his career here and those modern slave remarks were a final nail for me.

A slave living in a mansion in Cheshire earning close to a million pounds a month.

He will never be a legend at United. No one argues about Ronaldo the top footballer. But you can't be a legend at a club that you don't like. He is a Madrid legend.

His fans say oh United fans are bitter because he left for Madrid. No United fan is bitter at Ronaldo, they actually respect Ronaldo the Real Madrid footballer. But if your wife left you for another man, you don't go telling your friends and family, my ex wife is a legend.
 

Neil_Buchanan

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The problem is that we have had so many great players so we can be picky when choosing who to call a legend. He is definitely the best player I saw play for us and he won everything whilst here. At any other club that alone would be enough but we are spoiled so his early departure counts against him. One thing’s for certain- if he had stayed he would be up there with Charlton as our greatest legend, a club icon.
 

Offside

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In some ways he is more of a legend than anyone else. He seems to have mythical status given that he is one of a very small number of players who have their very best years elsewhere.

United fans saw him go from raw talent to the best player on the planet and then become one of the best of all time at another club.

In the footballing sense of the word Legend I think there are many many players who could be classed as more of a legend.
 

Pogue Mahone

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This again?

Done before and I doubt anything new will be presented here.

But alright, I'll play (out of boredom on a Monday afternoon):

It depends entirely (duh) on how you define the term. But you shouldn't define it as "any player who was bloody good while playing for Manchester United". You shouldn't even define it as "any player who was arguably the best player in the world while playing for Manchester United".

The only possible chance Ronaldo has to make it as a "United legend" is if you place him in the Cantona category, i.e. a player who arrived and proved to be a catalyst on the pitch/the dressing room and/or an obvious symbol of a monumental change taking place.

In my opinion Ronaldo doesn't really make the grade in either above sense. We didn't transform into anything we hadn't been before (in very recent memory, at that, and under the same manager/within the same overall continuity) - and he wasn't a catalyst on the pitch in the Cantona sense either. He was "just" extremely good. Which means exactly that - he was extremely good, but that doesn't make you a "legend". United have a rich history, we're not short on players who were both extremely good AND who qualify for "legend" status in other ways.

If Charlton is the benchmark, Ronaldo comes up short in pretty much every way.

But he also comes up short compared to Cantona. Or Duncan Edwards. Or Gary Neville (who never had a fraction of Ronaldo's talent - and never was anywhere near him in terms of actual quality on the pitch).

People tend to confuse overall quality with "legend" potential. Jaap Stam has been mentioned already: He was a superior player to almost any United CB in history. He's clearly much less of a "United legend" than Steve Bruce, though.
Sums it up nicely.

Also, being a legend of the club and describing being asked to stay at the club as being treated like a slave is mutually incompatible. Obviously.
 

Van Piorsing

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OK...so the report talks about the most goals as a midfielder. That's a bit misleading as he played in a front three during 1967/68 just like Ronaldo did in 2007/08.

He played in the same position as David Herd did in 1965/66. So if the article wanted to be accurate then that season Ronaldo broke David Herd's record of 33 goals.

Taylor, Law and Van Nistelrooy were out and out centre-forwards.

George Best never held any actual goalscoring records per se. As you can see below, all these players scored more than 32 goals in a season. So when Ronaldo hit his number it was the highest overall since van Nistelrooy.

34 goals Tommy Taylor 1956/57
46 goals Denis Law 1963/64
39 goals Denis Law 1964/65
33 goals David Herd 1965/66
36 goals Ruud van Nistelrooy 2001/02
44 goals Ruud van Nisterooy 2002/03
42 goals Cristiano Ronaldo 2007/08
Got ya, that's a truly great logical explanation. Also the reason why Ronaldo's achievement is so highlighted is because he managed to reach 32 goal tally in quite short period before season's end, also the same year he won Ballon d'Or.

United legend or not, at some point he joined the holy trinity of Charlton, Law, Best in making it as United player being the best footballer on the planet. The comparisons to Best in some aspects will always be inevitable.
 
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JPRouve

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Bang on. I wonder why some people watch football. They seem obsessed with individual players rather than the club.

He acted stupid towards the end of his career here and those modern slave remarks were a final nail for me.

A slave living in a mansion in Cheshire earning close to a million pounds a month.

He will never be a legend at United. No one argues about Ronaldo the top footballer. But you can't be a legend at a club that you don't like. He is a Madrid legend.

His fans say oh United fans are bitter because he left for Madrid. No United fan is bitter at Ronaldo, they actually respect Ronaldo the Real Madrid footballer. But if your wife left you for another man, you don't go telling your friends and family, my ex wife is a legend.
I am absolutely bitter.
 

Tom Cato

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Not to be pedantic but no he never. His 3 highest scoring seasons in all competitions for the club were
2006/07 23 goals,
2007/08 42 goals,
2008/09 26 goals.

But yes of course he is a club legend, how can he not be. It is just a shame he is a bigger Real Madrid legend and used United as a stepping stone for his personal ambitions.

In fairness, Real Madrid to a player from Portugal is about as high an echelon as you can get in life as if you lived 500 metres from Old Trafford and you bumped into Eric Cantona one morning when you were doing drills and he told you "You'll play for my club one day".

So I think "used as a stepping stone" is a little bit unfair. I think we should all accept that his road was always leading to Spain.

I think the legend status of CR7 needs a bit more time to properly set, it helps if he retires from the game and people start telling stories rather than read about the new Juventus contract. Only a handful of players have become legends when they were active, in fact I can only name Giggs. Rooney qualifies but he's still active as a manager/baller hybrid.

My point is that "legend" is something for the football fans of the next decade to decide.

My personal view is that I think of CR7 as an all time great, but I don't think of him in the same echelon as I think of Eric Cantona, Sir Matt Busby or Sir Alex Ferguson. To a smaller extent Ryan Giggs, Ole Gunnar Solskjær, Paul Scholes. People who personify and embodies the crest of Manchester United football club. Players and managers who spent either decades, or their careers here, making a mark in the annals of this club that no one will forget.

Ronaldo has certainly earned his right to be remembered fondly, but he needs to retire and let the conversations along the lines of "Remember that time when Ronaldo.." run among the fans before he can be counted as a true club legend. Leaving a club and remaining in it for your career is different, but not mutually exclusive, it just needs time.

My favorite moment from Ronaldo isn't one when he was even playing with the club. It's when Sir Alex was looking up at the Portgual players coming down from the stands after being awarded the 2016 Euro trophy, all the time you can se Sir Alex looking up like he's going to explode with pride at any momet, an the genuine joy when they embrace. That's my best memory of Ronaldo in relation to this club. The goals were of course nice, but man do I love Sir Alex Ferguson and everything he did for this club.
 

Acheron

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Depends on how you define the word LEGEND. As good as he was I wouldn't stick that label on him.
It should something like a player that is going to be remembered in generations to come by his feats and time in said club. At least I see it as something like that and when you think in Ronaldo most people associate him with both Manchester United and Real Madrid. With Juventus he's doing good so far but he still needs to do something like win the CL and Ballon d'Or with them to upgrade his status there.
 

Giggsyking

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If you have self respect as a club, no he isnt. If you have no self respect, yes he is.
 

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Simple answer, yes. He’s a legend.

Not sure why people hold his desire for a new challenge after accomplishing everything and lifestyle change against him.

He’s Portuguese. He wanted to be closer to his family. There’s no way in hell he was spending a majority of his career in England. I’ve been to both Manchester and Madrid. It made sense from a lifestyle perspective and sporting considering he loves challenges and they were in a CL drought at the time.
 

marktan

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Yes easily. Best player I've seen at United. His level from 2006 to 2008 was godly.

Of course the traditional definition of legend has both a high level of skill/output & longevity in it, but I think an exception can be made for one of the best if not the best to ever play the game. Better yet we got to see him grow from a kid and hit his peak (skill-wise anyway) here.

Ballon D'or & CL all add to that.
 

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Cantona embodied an era of United's history. Plus he was the catalyst for the 90s dominance. Cantona, very simply, was Ferguson's most important signing. He is in the top 3 players for the club of all-time sandwiched between Sir Bobby and Giggsy.
Ronaldo is the catalyst for our most successful period as well. Without him it doesn't happen.
If Cantona is then Ronaldo is
 
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Verbalkint

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Nope, not in my opinion. He was a great player who went on to become a legend at RM. Hats off to his achievements and no bitterness here really, but to put him in the same bracket as Cantona, Scholes, Keane etc is pushing it a bit in my book.
 

lsd

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Ronaldo is a United legend it is not even in doubt . He played here longer than other players people consider legends and pretty much single handedly won us trophies
 

lsd

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Ronaldo is the catalyst for our most successful period as well. Without him it doesn't happen.
If Cantona is then Ronaldo is

Exactly there is no way to say Cantona is a legend while Ronaldo is not. Ronaldo achieved more and did more for us and i love Cantona
 

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Despite his immense success it doesn't seem like he is idolized by Madrid fans like he should.
 

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It speaks volumes when discussing a United best 11, he regularly gets in at rw above becks.
 

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Of course he's a United legend, a superstar talisman who was part of one of the clubs most successful periods ever. If you don't count him a legend for United on the pitch you can't really consider anyone.
 

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Completely subjective on your definition of legend. Ronaldo is more a football legend than a United legend. To me, a legend is someone like Giggs or Totti someone who spend his whole career at a club. Ronaldo is obviously one of the best players to play for you, but in the end his love for United doesnt seek greater than his love for football or winning things in general.

So to me, he's a football legend, not a club legend.
 

Nicolarra90

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If he comes back and retires here then yes, otherwise no. Trophies and ability on it's own don't make you a legend, attitude, leadership, commitment are a mayor part of it, and he fell short on those the last year.

Long story short, you need to show you love the club to be a legend. He respects us, loved fergie I guess, but does not care about us.
 

lsd

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But they had the absolute same level of Influence and ronaldo stayed longer and was balón dor winner

There is nothing Cantona did at United that Ronaldo did not do better. You can argue Ronaldo achieved more playing for a weaker United team than Eric had
 

giggs-beckham

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Didn't he have a movie of his career and it was all madrid and hardly a few minutes of united footage? Our legends loved and still do love our club. I saw cantona saying to the camera in an interview, keep singing my name and I will always love you.
 

Rolaholic

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I don't think it's a question, he 100% is.

Even though he didn't stay an extended period with us and it might've ended a little rocky, he really made his name and established himself in the football world under Fergie at United.

Also played an major role in one of the greatest sides in our history.

Any player who wins a ballon d'or at a club is unquestionably elevated to club legend status in my eyes.