CRISTIANO RONALDO WAS BUTCHERED AND BATTERED BUT MADE IT AT MANCHESTER UNITED... GARY NEVILLE

The Portuguese phenomenon has won three Champions League crowns, three Ballon d'Or's and is now Real Madrid's all-time greatest goalscorer. He's also the overwhelming favourite for this year's Ballon d'or prize, having lead his National team and Club side to European trophies.

Cristiano Ronaldo has developed into a player who is "out of this world" according to Gary Neville - but only after being "butchered and battered" during the early days of his
Manchester United career.
The Portuguese arrived at Old Trafford at just 18 years of age in 2003, having impressed United players and Sir Alex Ferguson in a pre-season friendly between the Red Devils and Sporting Lisbon.

He spent six years with United before his then-world record £80million move to Real Madrid in 2009, and is now viewed as one of the greatest players of all time .

But Neville believes that Ronaldo wouldn't have become the player he has, had it not been for the standards he had set for him at Old Trafford - and which he himself took on.

"He didn't arrive at Manchester United as someone who was setting the tone for everybody else. It wasn't a case of he came in and all of a sudden everyone else upped their game, that's not how it was," Neville told talkSPORT .

"He became that out of what was in that dressing room. Cristiano was butchered and battered for two or three years at Manchester United and he has said it made him a man.

"He was setting the standards when he left, and he became someone who would come in and do half an hour before training and an hour after training, but there had been 20 players per season for 15 years doing that every day.

 "The club, and Sir Alex [Ferguson], and the players all set the tone for each other. If you look at his performances in the first two or three years, his maturity, his decision making, his physicality, his petulance, they were all smoothed out over a period of three or four years at the club."

Ronaldo was often seen as an ordinary entertainer by opposing fans during his first two years in English football, before being vilified for his role in Wayne Rooney's sending off in the 2006 World Cup quarter-final.

But Neville believes that Ronaldo really came into his own with United between 2007 and 2009 - a two-season spell where United won back-to-back Premier League titles, and reached the Champions League final twice - winning against Chelsea in Moscow, before losing to Barcelona in Rome the following year.

During that period Ronaldo won his first Ballon d'Or and hinted at his record-breaking goalscoring potential, with 68 goals in 102 games for United.
"For two years, 2007-08 and 2008-09, I cannot believe Manchester United fans could ever have seen anything like that.
"He was just out of this world, like he was from another planet."