Come on in and join the club! Get our daily Manchester United email newsletter Sign me up! Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

The mad thing is that Ronaldo and I weren’t supposed to be getting on.

The papers decide we’re not going to work together because of an incident that happened during the 2006 World Cup.

In England’s quarter-?nal against Portugal – Ronaldo’s Portugal – I got tangled up with their defender, Ricardo Carvalho, and accidentally stuck a boot on him.

It looked bad, but actually it was a total accident.

As I protested my innocence, Ronnie started waving an -imaginary card around, getting in the ref’s face. The of?cial pulled out the red and I was off.

An early bath. Tournament over.

When I walked to the tunnel, I knew I couldn’t really blame -Ronaldo for what had happened because he was trying to win the game for his country.

Besides, in the ?rst half I’d tried to get him booked for diving, so I was as bad as him really. But -moments after my card, -Ronaldo started winking at the sidelines, and to people watching the game on the telly it looked bad, like he was dead pleased about it.

(Image: Getty)

Down to 10 men, England then went out on pens and all hell broke loose – everyone immediately -decided that Ronaldo and I were the best of enemies, and his wink would spell trouble for United in the coming months.

I knew what was in store, so when I bumped into him in the tunnel after the game I gave him a heads up.

‘The fans will be going mad over this one,’ I said. ‘They’ll be trying to make a big deal of it, so we’ll just have to get on with things as -normal because there will be talk all summer.’

He understood, he’s a bright lad, but not long afterwards the papers reckoned he was off to Real -Madrid; apparently me and him weren’t talking, which was -absolute rubbish. The truth is I like Ronaldo, -always have done. He’s a good lad and great to have around the dressing room.

The United lads loved the drama, though.

Everyone gave us stick and when we turned up for the ?rst session back at the club -someone even brought in a pair of boxing gloves, as if the pair of us were going to have a scrap before we warmed up for the morning. But after our ?rst practice game together, everything was as right as rain. I could tell that we were going to have a cracking season.

There’s a mirror by Ronaldo’s seat in the Old Trafford dressing room.

In the time I’ve been playing with Ronnie, the one thing I’ve noticed about him is that he can’t walk past his reflection -without admiring it, even if we’re about to play a game of -football.

Every match, -before the team goes out for the warm-up, he runs through the same routine. The kit goes on, the boots go on. Not long after, Ronnie turns to his reflection and stares, psyching himself up for the game.

If there’s one person with a -bigger self-belief than Ronaldo, I haven’t met him yet. He’s not shy.

(Image: Getty)

He loves his clothes, and the -clobber he wears is -super expensive and covered in shiny logos – Dolce & Gabbana, Armani, you name it. He’s -swaggered into training, looking immaculate from head to foot. He must spend a -fortune on his wardrobe, but -Ronaldo’s -biggest love is football.

He tells us he wants to be the best player in the world, that he’s desperate to be the greatest.

Ronnie’s ambition isn’t just talk either. In the changing rooms -before the 2006/07 season I notice something -different

about him.

He’s bigger. He’s come back from the World Cup in -Germany muscly and beefed up, like he’s been on the weights all summer.

On the pitch in pre-season, he’s started cutting out the fancy tricks and flicks, and finding an end product to his mazy runs.

I know one thing: this change in Ronaldo hasn’t come about by luck. He works bloody hard.

When I watch him train or see him scoring great goals for fun in pre-season friendlies, I think he really could become the best -player in the world.

Read more exclusive Wayne Rooney extracts on playing tricks on Roy Keane, Gary Neville getting grief and Gazza paying for a night out

Extracted from My Decade in the Premier League by Wayne Rooney with a foreword by Sir Alex Ferguson. To be published by HarperSport on 13th Sept @ £20 ©Wayne Rooney 2012.