Former Man United star who was warned not to touch Cristiano Ronaldo in training reveals ‘regret’ at leaving club – and opens up on unexpected career change

A former Manchester United starlet who left the club for Burnley in 2009 has revealed his regret at ditching one of the world’s biggest clubs. 

The former full-back had once hoped to be the next Gary Neville and broke into United’s first team in the 2008-09 season, making four appearances. 

His job was to mark Cristiano Ronaldo in training – he even told The Athletic that ‘I didn’t find it that hard’ – but Sir Alex Ferguson enforced a hands-off rule. 

The player in question is Richard Eckersley, who was with United since the age of nine and debuted against Tottenham in the FA Cup fourth round in 2009. He still has a League Cup winners’ medal from that 2008-09 campaign.

In that match he played alongside gilded names such as Ronaldo, Dimitar Berbatov, and Paul Scholes – and now he looks back wistfully on those days despite being happy and fulfilled with his surprise career change. 

‘I probably should have stayed on and developed at Carrington under the coaches that I was already working with, because I was making steady progress,’ he told the Manchester Evening News. 

He said he didn’t find marking Cristiano Ronaldo in training and played four times for United

Now the 25-year-old runs an organic, zero-waste food shop in Devon called Earth.Food.Love

‘The jump from the cusp of one of the world’s greatest teams, you could say at that time, to Burnley, who had just got promoted but were going to be a struggling team in the Premier League, was a massive jump and a massive education for me, in terms of what is men’s football and what is it like to play with players that haven’t had the pedigree that people at United had.

‘It was a huge shift from where I was at United and the standards that we were setting with professionalism, the facilities and all the kinds of things that we had. You were basically looked after to the nth degree. 

‘Then going somewhere like Burnley – and no disrespect to Burnley – they were just in a different headspace.

‘I think the decisions that I made were based on promises that weren’t given, essentially. Nothing in football is guaranteed, but I think, in hindsight, I should have stayed on at United. I think I regretted it when I made the decision.’ 

Eckersley went on to have a respectable career, playing for Plymouth, Bradford, Toronto, New York Red Bulls, and Oldham.

Aged 26, he lost interest in football after one of his daughters was born and stepped away after a family trip to the Isle of Man.

Now 35, he is doing something entirely different – running an organic, zero-waste food shop called Earth.Food.Love.

‘We wanted to invest back into the community. The idea of a shop came about, and initially the idea was that it was going to be a wholefoods shop. There was already a wholefoods shop in Totnes and we thought about what else we could do that makes us unique,’ he said. 

Eckersley played for various clubs in the Football League and the USA before retiring aged 26

He was warned by Sir Alex Ferguson not to touch Ronaldo in Manchester United training

‘The idea of a zero-waste aspect wholefoods shop was unique and would draw people in. That was how it started. It gives us a purpose, I think that is the biggest thing. It is a joy because it is something that I am enjoying doing. It doesn’t feel like a chore and it doesn’t feel like I am working a 9-5 job.’

Eight years on and the rest is history. He also owns ReRooted, which produces plant-based milk.