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These names are synonymous with certain cities - Diego Armando Maradona and Naples, Gabriel Batistuta and Florence, Francesco Totti and Rome, Alessandro Del Piero and Turin. Case in point, It is very rare that a great footballer doesn’t have his name engraved in the folklore of at least one football city.
Yet for some like Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, it is often a question of multiple mistresses for one master. Having established themselves as immortals at one club, these legends continued at the peak of their powers even as mother nature necessitated a switch of allegiance.
If we have to revisit the subject of Ronaldo's evolution as an all-time great, logic suggests we travel back to England in the early 2000s, where under the tutelage of the legendary Alex Ferguson, a determined kid from the streets of Madeira dazzled the English top flight, turning water to wine, and customising the most competitive league in the world into his personal PlayStation console.
In the imperial white of Real Madrid for almost a decade, the magnificent number 7 danced with immortality, and presented his case as an all-time great. But it was in the red, white and occasionally blue apparel of Manchester United that the iconic Cristiano Ronaldo well and truly established himself as world class material.
Nine years after leaving the shores of England in a then world record transfer deal, the 2008 Premier League Golden Boot winner will return to Old Trafford as a Bianconeri, in the white and black stripes of Massimiliano Allegri’s Juventus.
For many there’s very little at stake given the stage of Europe's premier competition necessitating this fixture, but for the Manchester United faithful, and for Cristiano Ronaldo, the Champions League group stage showdown between the Serie A champions and a vulnerable United at Old Trafford is more than just a football game.
It is a reunion that has waited five years to happen, and one that (but for the intervention of UEFA's disciplinary panel to right the consequences of a terrible officiating decision at the Estadio Mestalla) was at some point in danger of not happening at all.
Since leaving the shores of Manchester in 2009, Cristiano Ronaldo has returned to Old Trafford just twice. Once as a Real Madrid player, and the other (equally hyped and anticipated), as Portugal’s captain in the 2014 international friendly vs Leo Messi's Argentina.
If your guess is as good as it should be, it is the 2012-13 Champions League round of 16 clash between Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United and Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid that qualifies as a memorable homecoming.
March 5, 2013. Upon the hallowed turf of The Theatre of Dreams, sporting a green Real Madrid kit, Cristiano Ronaldo has both hands in the air (in typical I can't celebrate fashion) as his Los Blancos teammates surround him, celebrating what was inevitably the winning goal for Jose Mourinho's men in a 3-2 aggregate triumph.
The Madeira native was on the receiving end of a loose square ball from Gonzalo Higuain to score Real’s second on the night after Luka Modric's 20-yard beauty cancelled out Manchester United's opener - a Sergio Ramos own goal.
For a number of reasons, it remains a night to remember - Nani's red card, a furious Alex Ferguson jabbing his finger at Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir, Luka Modric's virtuoso performance in the middle of the park, Jose Mourinho the runaway victor in another pulsating Old Trafford triumph, and of course Cristiano Ronaldo inflicting the knock-out blow.
A lot has changed since the business end of the 2012-13 season, Sir Alex Ferguson has moved on, Cristiano has established himself as the undisputed synonym of the UEFA Champions League, and Manchester United now under the stewardship of his former Real Madrid boss are still stuck in the post Fergie crisis.
The Red Devils although now packed with talent, are ironically still a shadow of the team that won the Premier League five years ago. For Cristiano Ronaldo and Juventus, the UEFA Champions League has become a holy grail, and the visit to Old Trafford on October 23 could prove the perfect opportunity to establish a strong footing in Group H.
One more time, half a decade since his last visit, CR7 will return to The Theatre of Dreams. The atmosphere will undoubtedly be one of a warm welcome, but in this episode, it is on Jose Mourinho's struggling army and not Cristiano Ronaldo the Old Trafford crowd will have their eyes firmly fixed on.
