Is Cristiano Ronaldo a United Legend?

He is a legend but it grinds on me how he constantly used us over the years to get a better contract, with no real desire of ever wanting to come back.

Also, when he left to go Juve, he went back to Madrid, to watch an El Clasico game. He has never once come back to watch United play.

As I say, will be a legend but I believe the fans hype him up more than he deserves to be, especially as Rooney gets so much stick.
 
Yes he is.

Cantona was here for a season less than he was, and some people regard Cantona as THE modern day Man Utd legend.
 
Forevergiggs1 said:
Fantastic player but not legend in my eyes. Anyone who wants to leave the club when they're just reaching their peak deserves thanks for what they helped us achieve but little more.
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So Eric Cantona is also not a United legend then? ALd Ruud Van Nistlerooy isnt and Dennis Law maybe even isnt.

Seriously how is this thread even a question? We nutured a talented, skinny raw talent into aruguably (lets not go into the Messi debate), the best player in the world over six years here. A player that is an all time great. His performances the last couple of years here were the best I have seen from somebody in our shirt in my lifetime (born after the busby babes). He was a huge influence in us winning titles, the champions league and reaching CL finals....so because he left us to play fo rthe club he had wanted to his whole career you see him as some kind of traitor? He has shown since leaving nothing but respect for the club and fans. All opinions, my opnion is anybody saying he isnt a legend here is talking absolute nonsense
 
The holy trinity 68 said:
Not to be penantic but no he never. His 3 highest scoring seasons in all competitions for the club were
2006/07 23 goals,
2007/08 42 goals,
2008/09 26 goals.

But yes of course he is a club legend, how can he not be. It is just a shame he is a bigger Real Madrid legend and used United as a stepping stone for his personal ambitions.
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Oh.. you're right.. I could have sworn he scored over 40 in his last season with us..
 
I am pretty sure this idiotic thread is made before. Of course he is a legend.
 
Won 3 league titles, a Champions League, a World Club Cup, an FA Cup, 2 League Cups and is the only Premier League player to have ever won World Footballer Of The Year as well as a 2 time PFA and FWA Player Of The Year so I’d say it’s a resounding yes he’s a Man Utd legend but he just happens to be an even bigger legend for Real than he is for us which is why his status for us is even questioned.
 
L3G4CY15 said:
My head says yes and my heart says no. I guess I’d have to go with my head on this one for the same reasons people have already mentioned. But I can certainly understand how some can say no.
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Same but with something like legends I will go with my heart, that's why Ronaldo isn't one for me but Cantona while achieving less is.
 
I’m sure this conversation pops up every once in a while. He’s a legend in that he was a very, very good player for us. But I don’t have much affection for him to be honest. Not like I do Cantona and the like.
 
Well I think it is fair to say he wasn't a legendary player when he joined us but he was by the time he left us, already in the discussion for greatest player so yes.
 
Look I love him for the years he gave us. It was an absolute joy to watch. But his heart was always in Madrid and he would have gone earlier if he had the chance.
Rooney is the proper legend. He sacrificed himself for the team when he could have been so much more.
 
Yes, because he was the main man in our brilliant 06-09 team, for my money our and England’s best ever football team, and won three leagues and a CL with us. However, as @JPRouve said, he joined a lesser team at the time and turned them into the best in the world. We’d still be ahead of Madrid now if he stayed imo. Having a player like him can have massive knock-on effects such as being able to entice other world class players and managers to join. Instead, we’ve had not poor managers by any means since Fergie, but those nowhere near suited to a club like United at that particular point in time, like Moyes, LvG and Ole (don’t cry, it’s true, he’s not good enough for where we want to be).

Unfortunately, we instead had that summer in 2009, causing us to instantly stop being the second best team in the world and lose the title to Chelsea. It’s a wonder SAF won two more leagues, losing out on the other two by virtue of GD and a solitary point respectively, and got to another CL final with the squad he had to work with for his last 4 seasons. Going off topic, that man was truly the Greatest Manager of All Time.
 
Statue of Limitations said:
Well I think it is fair to say he wasn't a legendary player when he joined us but he was by the time he left us, already in the discussion for greatest player so yes.
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No one saying he isn't one of the best players is all time. Is he a legend for United is the question?
 
No not for me. I wouldn’t swap his time at United for any other player but a legend is also someone who loves and respects the club. Joining another club even before hitting his prime and agreeing with the slavery comments don’t make him a legend.
Btw I consider Ronaldo a more intelligent player than the average footballer, he is definitely not a dumb person. He knew exactly what he was agreeing with in terms of Blatter’s comments.
I still like him and can also understand why he wanted to join RM and move to Spain.
But if I consider him a United legend I can as well (almost) consider Tevez a United legend because he was also a very important player for us albeit for a shorter period (now I know Ronaldo stayed longer and did more, but still).
 
This again?

Done before and I doubt anything new will be presented here.

But alright, I'll play (out of boredom on a Monday afternoon):

It depends entirely (duh) on how you define the term. But you shouldn't define it as "any player who was bloody good while playing for Manchester United". You shouldn't even define it as "any player who was arguably the best player in the world while playing for Manchester United".

The only possible chance Ronaldo has to make it as a "United legend" is if you place him in the Cantona category, i.e. a player who arrived and proved to be a catalyst on the pitch/the dressing room and/or an obvious symbol of a monumental change taking place.

In my opinion Ronaldo doesn't really make the grade in either above sense. We didn't transform into anything we hadn't been before (in very recent memory, at that, and under the same manager/within the same overall continuity) - and he wasn't a catalyst on the pitch in the Cantona sense either. He was "just" extremely good. Which means exactly that - he was extremely good, but that doesn't make you a "legend". United have a rich history, we're not short on players who were both extremely good AND who qualify for "legend" status in other ways.

If Charlton is the benchmark, Ronaldo comes up short in pretty much every way.

But he also comes up short compared to Cantona. Or Duncan Edwards. Or Gary Neville (who never had a fraction of Ronaldo's talent - and never was anywhere near him in terms of actual quality on the pitch).

People tend to confuse overall quality with "legend" potential. Jaap Stam has been mentioned already: He was a superior player to almost any United CB in history. He's clearly much less of a "United legend" than Steve Bruce, though.
 
I suppose but only because he reached a level between 2006 and 2009 that no other United player has ever reached. I never really felt that he saw United as anything but a stepping stone to Madrid though.
 
OL29 said:
I never understood this argument, you could say the same thing about Cantona but no one would object to him being called a legend.
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He's a legend in my eyes, but in a way that we're that ex that still clings to the past while he bangs Madrid and fall in love with them, while it's nothing but a flirt with us.

He never really loved us
 
There are obviously different tiers. If you were to do it in FM style, he'd be an icon, not a legend.

Not really up there with the likes of Charlton, Best, Robson, Cantona, Keane, Giggs & Scholes (and a few others).
Probably somewhere alongside the likes of Beckham, Rooney, van Nistelrooy, Rio, Schmeichel etc.

On talent alone he obviously deserves to be at the very top, but his legacy here is hugely (and rightly) affected by the way that he left us and, maybe more importantly, when he did that.

It's so hard to say, as there's no clear definition of a legend – and there's never will be just one objective definition that works for everyone. I mean, Ole is a legend, Neville is a legend, Stam is a legend – there are so many different players with all sorts of careers that fit that description that you can't simply deduct a working formula from them. The result of the original poll was a fair one, I'd say – if I remember correctly, more posters voted for yes than for no, although the latter opinion was also quite popular, but most of them settled on something in the middle.

Is he going to be remembered by our fans decades later? Yes. Are we going to build him a statue and rename our training ground after him? God, I hope not.
 
He's a legend surely.
Is he as big a legend as Rooney, Rio and the likes? No. I'd put him in the same tier of legends as RVN probably.
 
Sky1981 said:
He played like 6 years out of his -/+ 20 years career, shone for us only on his last 3 season. His 42 goals a season was his pinnacle with us, apparently it's just a start of many similar feat

So no, if he's not that Godly Good, I don't think we'd call him a legend on merit alone.

Nobody mentioned RvN as legend, stat wise he banged more goals then CR7 for us.

So yeah, I think him being so godly is the reason why he's included as our legend.
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We won one title with RVN, 3 titles and UCL with Ronaldo. Also, 2007-2008 season when he was the best in the world and won Ballon D’Or is the only time in the last 50 years when the best player in the world played for us.

With regard to the main topic, I would consider him a legend but not on the same line as Charlton, Giggs or Scholes. Still a legend, nevertheless.
 
Blood Mage said:
I suppose but only because he reached a level between 2006 and 2009 that no other United player has ever reached.
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That simply isn't true in my opinion.

But without getting into a protracted discussion about this and that (eras versus eras, not least) - it certainly can't be called an objective truth. If United were a small-ish club with no other world beating, Ballon winning players - then yeah, sure, that would've been a legit argument for "legend" status.

As it stands, though - it clearly ain't. Based on talent and achievements as a United player (you don't get to factor in his overall career here), Ronaldo doesn't stand out compared to Bobby Charlton or George Best (to state the most obvious examples).
 
Of course he is, anything that says otherwise has to still be harbouring hate for how it came to an end.
 
He's one the best players and now in the pantheon of all time greats, so obviously when combined with his trophies, goals scored, and style - it would be hard to make a case that he isn't.
 
Only a legend to those who idolise him. But to me he is not. For me a legend is someone who loves the club and is loved in equal measure. Ronaldo doesn't love Manchester United. He considers himself a Real Madrid legend and rightly so because he loved Real Madrid more than he loves United. I respect his achievements as an elite athlete but I wouldn't ask for his autograph if I met him. However if I saw Messi I would take a picture with him. I would also run chasing down the streets if someone told me Ole Gunnar Solskjaer or Wesley Brown were spotted somewhere downtown.

Before anyone criticizes my post I respect the footballing achievements of Ronaldo, but if my girlfriend dumped me for another guy I wouldn't love her and wouldn't call her a legend either. She can dissaper for all I care
 
OL29 said:
I never understood this argument, you could say the same thing about Cantona but no one would object to him being called a legend.
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Cantona embodied an era of United's history. Plus he was the catalyst for the 90s dominance. Cantona, very simply, was Ferguson's most important signing. He is in the top 3 players for the club of all-time sandwiched between Sir Bobby and Giggsy.
 
Arguably the best player to ever play for the club? Second best at worst? Yea I think I will remember him
 
Yes. He was the catalyst to our most dominant period in the modern era. Won more here than even Cantona, including ballon d’or.

He’s a Manchester United legend.
 
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