‘Cristiano Ronaldo’s actions at Man Utd forced me to change my attitude’

Danny Drinkwater spent several seasons at Manchester United where Cristiano Ronaldo’s dedication in the gym saw the midfielder change how he applied himself to the game

Former Leicester City star Danny Drinkwater has opened up about how Cristiano Ronaldo’s dedication to working out inspired him to take his own fitness to the next level. The Manchester-born midfielder, who tasted Premier League success with Leicester, started his football journey at Manchester United’s academy when he was just nine.

The former Chelsea player climbed through the ranks and bagged a trainee contract in July 2006. It was during this time that he shared training facilities with Ronaldo. Despite never making it to United’s first team, Drinkwater revealed how the Al-Nassr star had a direct impact on him.

“I remember Ronaldo when he first came and he was like, again, he was nowhere near the size he was 1743016520 was he?,” he said while talking with Rio Ferdinand on the ex-United star’s podcast, ‘Rio Ferdinand Presents’.

When asked if Ronaldo served as an inspiration, Drinkwater, now 35, responded: “Oh, massively, yeah, and he [Ronaldo] had a tricky start, didn’t he?,”

“And I remember he come back [to pre-season] and he looked like, I don’t know, he looked like he smashed the gym for a whole year, man. And I remember thinking like, ‘wow, like he’s at the first team and he’s doing that, like we’ve got ages to go’. And I remember after that then I started taking gym seriously.”

Drinkwater isn’t alone in marvelling at Ronaldo’s relentless fitness regimen. Former United defender Raphael Varane has also recently spoken about the extraordinary measures the prolific former Real Madrid forward takes to maintain his prime condition, as per the Manchester Evening News.

“Firstly, he has an extraordinary physique,” Varane, 31, told L’Équipe in February of this year. “More importantly, he understood very young, very early on, that he needed to invest in his body to achieve his ambitions.

“That’s the big difference with many high-level athletes: he did it from the start of his career when he was at Manchester United.”

Varane was twice a team-mate of Ronaldo’s, first at Madrid from 2011 to 2018, then at United from August 2021 to November 2022. He won the Champions League four times with Ronaldo at Los Blancos, and claimed his application to his fitness, while bordering on the obsessive, was inspirational.

“His competitiveness is quite incredible, and that will be hard to copy; it’s something you either have or don’t. Making sacrifices, taking care of oneself, arriving earlier for training is within everyone’s reach, but it requires willpower. It’s very mental.

“They say genius borders on madness, and what he does is sometimes a bit mad. It’s so intense that it’s impressive. He inspired me enormously throughout my career.”

Drinkwater established himself in the United under-18 team, making 27 appearances and netting two goals. He departed the club for Leicester in 2012 and clinched the league title with the Foxes under Claudio Ranieri in 2016.

He then had a five-season spell at Chelsea but only made 23 appearances for the Blues. He hung up his boots in 2022 after loan spells with Burnley, Aston Villa, Turkish outfit Kasımpaşa and Reading.

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