Ronaldo happy, but missing Manchester
The Portuguese winger, who left United for a record £80 million (€94m) fee in the summer, said his challenge now is to help Real challenge the dominance of Barcelona as the best club in the world.
Alex Ferguson’s side have hit a poor patch of form but Ronaldo dismisses the pundits who believe they are struggling without him.
Ronaldo, speaking in Zurich ahead of the FIFA world player award, said: “I think Manchester United are doing very well this season – they have lost the last two games but they are still second in the league.
“What people think about me is their opinion but I really miss Manchester a little bit as I played there for six years and I left a few friends there.
“So I miss the club a little bit but I’m focused now at Real Madrid and I’m really, really happy there.”
Ronaldo concedes that Barcelona, whose victory in the Club World Cup at the weekend made it a staggering six trophies in the last year, have to be regarded as the best club on the planet – but he is determined to challenge their supremacy.
“Barcelona has won everything this year so have to be the best club at the moment,” he added. “Barcelona have a style of play and players who have been playing together for many years so they are an outstanding team. But we will do at our best at Real Madrid to win the league and Champions League.
“It’s going to be difficult but in football everything is possible if you work hard and dedicate yourself to that endeavour.”
Ferguson, meanwhile, has ruled out making new signings to ease his defensive injury crisis.
United are currently four points adrift of Barclays Premier League leaders Chelsea and Ferguson is acutely aware that unless United’s form improves quickly, they can forget about a record fourth consecutive title.
With seven senior defenders – Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Wes Brown, Jonny Evans, John O’Shea, Gary Neville and Rafael Da Silva – out of action, plus keeper Edwin van der Sar, it was felt Ferguson may make an emergency signing, even though he had already ruled out the possibility of out-of-contract Sol Campbell joining on a short-term basis.
However, with the majority of his players due back at some point in January, Ferguson will not be making any additions.
“That is not come onto the agenda,” he said. “We hope that Wes Brown will be back in a week or 10 days, Rio Ferdinand is improving, Gary Neville is getting there and Rafael Da Silva has now started training.
“We are not so bad and we are not looking at signing players.”
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