Cristiano Ronaldo has the attitude and temperament to cope with
the increasing media and public attention heaped upon him,
according to Sir Alex Ferguson.
United's Asia Tour has served to confirm the 22-year-old Portuguese
winger's status as a world star. But, his level-headedness is
important. Under the watchful eye of his manager, who has coped
with similar situations in the past, most notably with David
Beckham, Sir Alex will ensure he is not "wasted" by the
attention.
"Ronaldo is an intelligent boy who looks after himself," Ferguson
told the UK's written press. "He has a lot of pluses. How players
handle that celebrity kind of attention, you never know, but with
Ronaldo he seems to do OK with that.
"The problem comes when players get flattered by it and start
enjoying it. That's when you start worrying but at the moment
there's absolutely no sign that the boy will be wasted by it. When
people ask to interview him, it doesn't worry me too much. He can
cope."
Sir Alex's track record for protecting players, like Beckham, Ryan
Giggs and Eric Cantona, is second to none. "It's obvious when a
talent like that comes along that there will be attention but this
club has been used to that for years now," adds the boss.
"Ronaldo is 22 and at that age you have to be flexible when it
comes to curtailing their youthfulness. They like to dress
differently and they want a bit of freedom in their choices. They
want to be men before they are men and, with Cristiano, a lot has
happened to him in his time at Manchester United; but he has
matured fantastically well."