As part of the build-up to the World Cup, ESPN FC presents a series of features on players who have divided opinion throughout their careers. It begins with a profile of Cristiano Ronaldo, the two-time World Player of the Year who has single-mindedly set scoring records for club and country during a remarkable career.
This could be Cristiano Ronaldo's greatest year yet. Having already lifted the Copa del Rey, Real Madrid are chasing a treble including their 10th European Cup, the semifinals of which begin this week.
Then there's the World Cup, in which Ronaldo has a point to prove after a disappointing 2010, which followed a 2006 campaign in which he helped Portugal reach the last four.
Carlos Queiroz was Portugal’s manager four years ago, overseeing a campaign that ended with defeat in the last 16. Ronaldo, who was a star in qualifying, disappointed in the tournament itself, scoring just one goal.
"The real Cristiano was not at that World Cup, not in a good shape or form," Queiroz told me.
"We expected him to make a difference and he didn't. With Cristiano playing well for Portugal it was like having 14 players. He's that good. Only [Lionel] Messi can match him."
Prior to working together for the national team, Ronaldo and Queiroz had been together at Manchester United. When the then-18-year-old joined the club, his assistant manager saw a vast reservoir of potential.
"After a couple of weeks at the start of the 2003-04 season, I called him to my office," Queiroz said. "I said: 'Look, this is very simple. It's not enough for you to be a great player. You need to understand that God gave you the skills and opportunity to be the best player in the world. If you want to work in that direction you have my full support. If you want to be merely one more player, I'll treat you like I treat the others.'
"It was very rare to see in a young player so much talent and such a strong personality, purpose and commitment. I read about Arnold Schwarzenegger learning to dance the tango. He was obsessed to be a perfectionist. Cristiano is the same."
Queiroz, who is now manager of Iran, recalls one incident at United’s training ground, which showed Ronaldo’s commitment.
"I saw something moving in the trees far away," he said. "Maybe it was a spy. I called a security man and asked him to investigate. He came back to me and said: 'It's Cristiano Ronaldo. He's training alone.’”
Queiroz laughs and says: "Cristiano was unique."
Most who've worked with Ronaldo have nothing but praise for his professionalism, his pursuit of personal excellence which has seen him fulfill that immense potential.
“From the day he walked through the door at Carrington to the day he left, Cristiano Ronaldo was the greatest trainer I ever worked with,” said Mike Clegg, United's power development coach between 2000 and 2011.
“He took on a new level of total dedication to his training because he wanted to be the best footballer in the world. He filled his time with football; his whole life was dedicated to it. He even had his own cook so that he was eating well all the time, he made sure he bought a house with a swimming pool so that he could do more training.”
Ronaldo would arrive early so he could prepare properly.
“He’d be in the gym with me doing core work, then he’d do activation, then his actual football training,” Clegg said.
Once training ended, most footballers go home.
“Cristiano would come back into the gym and do some power work for his legs,” Clegg said. “Then he would go home, eat the right food, swim, sleep, where I’m sure he dreamed about football, and come back in the next morning. He did that for five or six years and, knitted together, that made him become the player who was sold for 80 million pounds.
“He arrived aged 18, the perfect time. Some players at that age go through a funny phase where they doubt themselves or think they are better than what they are. They curtail training. Had they done what Ronaldo did, they could have been far better."
So why does Ronaldo annoy so many people? Envy, for a start, what with all that talent, fame and the supermodel girlfriend he met on an Armani fashion shoot.
He's vainglorious with an ego the size of Madeira, his home island, but it's a self-assured arrogance which he backs up with talent. Messi's similar, but he doesn't strut like Ronaldo; he's not as expressive, as dramatic. Messi is a commander in the shadows; Ronaldo is all emotion on the pitch.
Early in his Old Trafford career, Ronaldo suffered from a propensity to go to ground too easily when challenged, which annoyed United supporters as much as away fans, but Sir Alex Ferguson helped reduce the frequency of dives from his game.
Ronaldo's perceived arrogance did annoy some teammates and his relationship with Ruud van Nistelrooy soured to the point of a training ground fight in 2006. Did the Dutchman not like the fact Ronaldo was becoming the main man at United?
They'd later be reunited in Madrid without any problems. Ronaldo took time to be loved in Spain, with some fans accusing him of being self-centred when really their frustration lay in their club's inability to win trophies and shift Barca's hegemony. Some in Spain dislike him simply for being Portuguese.
By the end of last season, Merengues (Madrid fans) had come around to realising that their team was far, far better with Ronaldo in it than not. Scoring key goals at Camp Nou away helped. Last season, he became the first player to score in six consecutive clasicos, smiling in front of fuming Catalans and pointing a finger to his eye, as if to say: "Did you see that?"
Once again, he'd proved doubters wrong and fellow players vividly remember Ronaldo's fierce ambition, which was apparent from an early age.
“Cristiano was 18 and didn’t waste time telling everyone that he was going to be the best player in the world,” said former Man United midfielder Quinton Fortune. “The rest of the players found it more amusing than arrogant. They rated him because they saw what he could do in training, but players like Ryan Giggs told him not to say such things publicly because he would only pile pressure on himself. Ronaldo laughed at that as if to say, ‘I can deal with anything.'
“He was always the best at step overs, but he started doing them with weights strapped to his ankles so that it would be easier in a real game. If he saw someone do a new trick he would ask them how they did it. Then he’d teach himself until he was the best. I used to balance the ball on my forehead and roll it onto the crown of my head. Cristiano asked me about it. Three days later he was better than me at it and he actually goaded me to say that he was better!”