Ex-Manchester United winger, Nani has said he never felt he was in the shadow of Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney while they all played together at the club.
The Portuguese spent eight seasons at United between 2007 and 2015 after following in Ronaldo’s footsteps from Sporting C.P.
According to him, the entire team was fantastic and no one was under anyone’s shadow.
He added that he was fortunate enough to be a part of such a great team.
His words, “No. I never felt in the shadow of Ronaldo, [Ryan] Giggs or Rooney.
“And there were no shadows at that time. We had a fantastic team.
“I played with Ronaldo lots of times as a starter. Our team had two or three playing styles and when it came to facing certain teams it was Nani and Ronaldo, while others were Ronaldo with Rooney.
“I was fortunate that when I came to Manchester, I played a lot of games in my first two years there and I was one of the most used players in the Champions League. So I have no reason to complain.”
“When Cristiano left, an illusion was created,”
“People said me and Ronaldo had a very similar style, there were lots of comparisons and they wanted a replacement for him – and they had me.
“But they got it wrong; they shouldn’t have said we have the new Ronaldo, they should have said we have Nani. Better or worse, with different qualities.
“In the first two years after Ronaldo left, I had some excellent times. Then I had the misfortune of having some injuries and my form dropped after my recovery.
“I was no longer meeting expectations, which was maybe to produce the same numbers as Ronaldo, the same number of goals.
“But I was a different player; I never scored so many goals, but got more assists.”
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