When a precocious, teenage Cristiano Ronaldo ran rings around Manchester United in the summer of 2003, Sir Alex Ferguson was left in no doubt about what had to come next.
The legendary Scottish manager infamously told the club’s kit man, Albert Morgan to ‘get up to that directors’ box and get Peter Kenyon down at half-time’. After chatting with the former chief executive, it was made clear that United were not leaving the Jose Alvalade Stadium without his signature confirmed.
John O’Shea was the defender tasked with trying to stop the young Sporting star on that history-defining afternoon. And he looks back on it favourably, even if anecdotes of oxygen masks and migraines have been exaggerated over time.
