Nottingham Forest new boy Anthony Elanga has revealed the one quality in Cristiano Ronaldo that his team-mates admire the most after training with him.
What did Anthony Elanga say about Cristiano Ronaldo?
While the Portuguese winger didn't enjoy the greatest return to Old Trafford, spending just over a year back in England after leaving Juventus in 2021, he did still deliver some fine moments.
Indeed, in his one full season back at Manchester United, Ronaldo scored 18 goals in the Premier League, for a total of 24 from 38 outings in all competitions. But he then departed in a shroud of controversy as he lambasted the club in a now-infamous interview with Piers Morgan.
Indeed, CR7 claimed things hadn't improved behind the scenes at Carrington since he first left in 2009, saying (via TalkSport): “Nothing changed. Surprisingly. Not only the pool, the jacuzzi, even the gym.
“Even some points the technology, the kitchen, the chefs – who I appreciate and are lovely, lovely people – but they stopped in time, which is this. It surprised me a lot, I thought I will see different things, different, as I mentioned before, the technology and infrastructure."
Despite the sour note that Ronaldo left on, it appears that he was still an impressive and valuable figure for some of the younger players to train with – as proven by Elanga's recent comments.
Indeed, when recently speaking to Sky Sports News (via NottinghamshireLive), the Forest winger spoke about how the 38-year-old's "discipline" is what sets him apart from others.
Talking about what he picked up behind the scenes from training regularly with the iconic forward, Elanga said: “I played with arguably one of the best players in the world – of all time– Ronaldo. And obviously playing with the likes of Bruno [Fernandes] and Christian Eriksen, I can go through the whole team, [Raphael] Varane, Casemiro, I learned a lot from them, not just what they do on the pitch but off the pitch as well, their discipline and how they look after themselves.
“It just shows he [Ronaldo] has been able to play until he is 38, it shows his discipline and how he is able to look after himself if you can take a little chapter out of his book then you can go a long way.
“I took a lot of things and I am trying to bring that to here and just trying to do it on the regular basis. The last two games have shown what I can do and I just want to keep that momentum going.”
How old is Anthony Elanga?
Still only 21 years of age, Elanga has plenty of time to reach the peak of his powers as a footballer and certainly appears to have learned a thing or two from training with greats like Ronaldo during his time at Old Trafford.
Before sealing his move to Forest for a reported £15m, the young winger had been at Manchester United since 2014, rising through the youth ranks to make his senior debut in the 2020/21 season and going on to play 55 senior games (via Sky Sports).
Elanga has already shown one glimpse of what he can do in a Forest shirt too as he grabbed a fine assist against Arsenal after coming off the bench to make his debut in what turned out to be a 2-1 away defeat.
If he can maintain his sense of "discipline" on the training pitch just as he learned to do from Ronaldo, this could result in some pretty impressive match-day performances for his new club.
