Manchester United’s Diogo Dalot revealed Cristiano Ronaldo once correctly predicted a certain striker would “not make it” at Old Trafford—but the right back refused to identify the former Red Devil.
Dalot shared the pitch with Ronaldo at the club level when the five-time Ballon d’Or winner completed his sensational return to United in Aug. 2021. The fullback pulled back the curtain on his relationship with the Portugal captain, describing how much he learned from him, as well as Ronaldo’s uncanny ability to see into the future.
“That season with Cristiano was when I really started to grow as a player and as a person,” Dalot wrote in a piece for The Players’ Tribune. “I lost count of the number of predictions he got right, because he knows so well what it takes to go to the top.
“If anyone skipped a set in the gym, he would notice. We had a striker here who did really well for us in his first season, but Cristiano said, ‘He’s not gonna make it here.’
“I said, ‘Cris, he scored two goals today!’ He said, ‘Yeah, but he didn’t have the fire to go for the third.’”
Who Is the Striker Dalot, Ronaldo Discussed?
The mysterious jab from Ronaldo prompted United fans to dive deep into the 2021–22 season to figure out who the Portuguese phenom spoke about. Except the only player in red, other than Ronaldo, to bag at least a brace in that first campaign back was Bruno Fernandes.
Fernandes, neither a striker nor a player who didn’t last at United, does not fit the profile. After all, the attacking midfielder is coming off his seventh season with the club, one that crowned him FWA and Premier League Player of the Season.
There is perhaps then a discrepancy in the timeline of Dalot’s story, because there are a few names that fit the billing from the 2022–23 season, before Ronaldo left to join Al Nassr in December. Both Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford netted twice in the first three months of the campaign and both players ultimately did not make it at Old Trafford.
Martial’s tenure was full of highs and lows. In his seven years at Old Trafford, he found the back of the net 79 times in 269 appearances, winning five trophies along the way, including the 2016–17 Europa League title. By the time Ronaldo got to Old Trafford, though, the striker was struggling for form, sent out on loan to Sevilla in 2021–22 before scoring just nine goals in 2022–23 when he returned to Manchester.
Rashford had even more accolades to his name, scoring 138 goals in 426 appearances in a red shirt. But the England international significantly struggled in Ronaldo’s first season back, only bagging five goals. He bounced back in 2022–23, but the following two seasons were full of nothing but despair before he finally joined Aston Villa and then Barcelona on loan—the latter of which where he hopes to stay.
Jadon Sancho and Edinson Cavani also found the back of the net during Ronaldo’s second stint at United, but neither had a brace to their name during his time back at Old Trafford.
Mason Greenwood is another name being tossed around, largely in part due to his breakthrough campaign 2019–20, scoring 17 goals as a teenager. Except he also never scored a brace while Ronaldo was his United teammate.
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