“I was too busy helping the youngsters develop” – Man United coach admits he never saw Ronaldo

Tom Huddlestone, the youth coach of Manchester United, has stated that he never met Cristiano Ronaldo at the club.



Before the Portuguese great left Old Trafford, the two were signed by the Red Devils in 2022 and both were on the books of the club for some time.

In an interview with talkSPORT, Huddlestone said that his involvement with the youth side prevented him from seeing the Al Nassr player.

Because of their roles at the club, he said, they used to occasionally be in the same building but more frequently on different sides.

He said: “From my point of view, being a coach with the academy you never really got to see the first-team environment. The club is in the spotlight 24/7 regardless and I think you bring one of the greatest players ever into that environment and it heightened everything. To be fair to him, even at 36/37 years old he was still producing goals on the pitch. [The United youngsters] grew up with Ronaldo being one of the top two players in the world for 10/15 years.”

He added: “So for them, as I say, it elevated the club to a different level, the lads are buzzing, a lot of our players go up and train with the first-team regularly. Once they are in and around players such as that and they see the dedication it takes, whether that is little things like warm-ups and cooldowns, recovery, it is a good insight for them to realise what it takes, not only to get to the top but to stay there for a dozen years. I don’t think I actually saw him! We were in the same building but on opposite sides. I was too busy helping the youngsters develop.”

In 2022, Tom Huddlestone became a member of Manchester United’s under-21 team as a player-coach.

After his contract was canceled due to the bombshell interview with Piers Morgan, Cristiano Ronaldo departed the Red Devils in November of that same year.