Former Manchester United icon and the world’s highest paid player Cristiano Ronaldo returned to the pitch today. It was the first time we saw the Real Madrid forward in action since the Portugal versus Ghana World Cup match. Ronaldo is recovering well and played 16 minutes in Saturday’s friendly against his former club in Detroit (well, actually Ann Arbor a nearby suburb). United prevailed 3-1, but “The Big House,” crowd roared it’s loudest today when Ronaldo subbed in at the 74 minute.
Michigan Stadium has the highest capacity of any stadium in the United States and the third most in the world. Tickets to this game sold out in just two hours! Cristiano Ronaldo, probably one of the five greatest players of all time, is a big reason why.
Today’s attendance of 109, 318 broke the U.S. record!
It didn’t just break it, today’s new mark SLAUGHTERED it. The previous high was 101,799 set at the Rose Bowl in 1984 for the Olympic Final between Brazil and France.
Ronaldo became Manchester United’s first-ever Portuguese player when he signed for €15 million (£12.24 million) after the 2002–03 season. The 2006–2007 season proved to be the breakout year for Ronaldo, as he broke the 20 goal barrier for the first time and picked up his first league title with Manchester United.
On 11 June 2009, Manchester United accepted an unconditional offer of £80 million from Real Madrid for Ronaldo after it was revealed that he again had expressed his desire to leave the club. It was confirmed by a representative of the Glazer family that the sale was fully condoned by Sir Alex Ferguson. When Ronaldo had eventually completed his transfer to Real, he expressed his gratitude towards Ferguson for helping him develop as a player, saying, “He’s been my father in sport, one of the most important factors and most influential in my career. He made 196 appearances for United and scored 84 goals.
Here's what breaking the attendance record by 8000 looks like. #MUFC #ManUvsRealMadrid #BigHouse pic.twitter.com/yvysCNUIM8
— Paul M. Banks (@PaulMBanks) August 2, 2014
Indeed the hype for this one was huge, and it lived up to it.
“I think also, the game was not a friendly game,” said United Manager Louis van Gaal.
“I had the feeling that Carlo didn’t want to lose, and that’s why he started with Ronaldo a little bit earlier than he has said before.”
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports and Yahoo! He’s been a guest on news talk shows all across the world. He’s also a special contributor to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Banks has been featured in numerous media outlets including NFL.com, Forbes, Bleacher Report, Deadspin, ESPN, NBC, CBS, the History Channel and more. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)