‘Quinton Fortune and I used to troll Cristiano Ronaldo – we almost made him cry’

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    Rio Ferdinand and Quinton Fortune used to "borderline bully" Cristiano Ronaldo when they were all at Manchester United back in the day.

    Everyone knows how intensely-competitive Ronaldo is, and it's fair to say the five-time Ballon d'Or winner is no stranger to an on-field blubber (remember his sob-fest after getting sent off on his Champions League debut for Juventus?).

    But according to Ferdinand, who shared a dressing room with Ronaldo for six years at Old Trafford, the ex-Real Madrid star's desperation to be the best extended well beyond the turf of a football pitch.

    READ MORE: Cristiano Ronaldo insists 'I'm a better man' as he opens up on Man Utd departure

    Speaking to Australian radio show Kyle and Jackie O last month, Ferdinand said he used to have epic table tennis battles with the Portugal forward at United's Carrington training ground and that Ronaldo would be on the verge of tears every time he lost.

    "We used to play every other day before training, as part of the warm-up. I used to smash him all over the place," the former England international said.

    "He did beat me … it was me and him, [ranked] one and two, like [Roger] Federer and [Rafael] Nadal. If it was televised, it would have broken records. He used to, like, almost cry and that, he was so competitive."

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    Ferdinand explained that he and team-mate Fortune, who played for United between 1999 and 2006, used to rip into Ronaldo all the time and that their behaviour often bordered on bullying, but insisted it likely helped fortify the youngster's mental strength.

    "Me and a guy called Quinton Fortune … we used to take the mick out of him a lot," he added. "[Ronaldo] was a lot younger than us at the time – borderline bullying, maybe, but it was just trying to, like, build him, build that resilience."

    Ronaldo left for Real Madrid for a world record £80m fee in 2009 very much a mentality monster, though he never quite grew out of his habit of turning on the waterworks.

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