I played before Sporting in Champions League, against Benfica or Porto. Ronaldo has never failed to score against a former club in Europe and it is clear he is looking forward to the reunion. It’s a privilege for me.
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Ronaldo began his career at Sporting and will face the club when Real Madrid begin their defence of the Champions League trophy at the Bernabeu on Wednesday.
It nearly feels like yesterday when a young winger was making waves in the Champions League ripping apart a star-studded and illustrious Manchester United at the inauguration of his club’s new Jose Alvalade Stadium, a game Sporting won 3-1. We’ve played Borussia Dortmund in this competition before – and lost.
Ronaldo told reporters, “Everyone knows that anyone who wants to make the front pages has to talk about me”.
It’s a challenge, it’s a great challenge, and I think at Real Madrid we have a chance to win it again. We know it’s a very hard competition, nothing is easy, so we’re going to try. First we have to think about the group stage, because in my opinion we have a hard group. “But think positive – that it’s possible to win it again”.
“It is a long competition, but I am convinced we will win it this year”. He also won his maiden worldwide title with Portugal at the 2016 European Championship.
In terms of trophies it was possibly the best year of my career.
Adding Euro 2016 glory with Portugal to a third Champions League success has left Ronaldo acclaiming the previous season as a personal high point. The same goes both collectively and individually, because I was top scorer in the Champions League and had a good European Championship, and we were able to win the two biggest trophies.
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Xavi, who is now plying his trade with Qatari football club Al Sadd after making a move from the Spanish giants following the 2014/15 La Liga season, opined his former Barcelona teammate would be the number one until he stopped playing.
