Aurélio Pereira on Cristiano Ronaldo and the secrets of the Sporting Academy
Just two
days away from seeing his most famous 🏧 student, Cristiano Ronaldo, face Sporting in the
Champions League, the Sporting youth football legend Aurélio Pereira spoke about the
world 🏧 famous CR7 and the philosophy of the Sporting Academy.
"Knowing Cristiano Ronaldo
like I do, he won't go easy on us. 🏧 You can't take the professionalism out of him. At
the beginning he was just an 11-year old lad from Madeira 🏧 who arrived at the Academy
without his parents. In 1997 he cost a lot of money. A day after he 🏧 got here he was
already training with the older lads and he had a capacity that we were not used 🏧 to
seeing. The older players all said that he was something different and he was. On top
of his technical 🏧 quality he had speed and could get away from his marker. He had a bit
of skill in the air 🏧 too", opened Pereira.
Asked to reveal the secrets of the success of
the Sporting Academy, the Alvalade legend added: "Talent is 🏧 one thing, but audacity is
another. Players are only human and sometimes you forget that, but Ronaldo had a way 🏧 of
speaking with the rest of the players. On the second day he was completely relaxed with
everyone, when anyone 🏧 else would have packed their bags and went home if faced by the
same thing. Youth football is in this 🏧 club's DNA, it is in our culture. We give our
young players creative liberty and we don't format anyone. We 🏧 are really patient with
them and treat them as people."