I used to smash Cristiano Ronaldo at a completely different sport – I almost made him cry, it was borderline bullying

RIO FERDINAND has revealed that he used to have Cristiano Ronaldo on the verge of tears when the pair would compete in the changing rooms.

The former England centre-back played with Ronaldo at Manchester United for six years.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Rio Ferdinand won the Premier League three times together as well as winning the Champions League

Ferdinand has explained that they used to play each other at TABLE TENNIS before training at Carrington and the Portuguese superstar’s competitive nature would leave him upset at losing.

Speaking to Australian radio show Kyle and Jackio O, he said: “Me and a guy called Quinton Fortune – another teammate – we used to take the mick out of him a lot,

“He was a lot younger than us at the time – borderline bullying, maybe, but it was just trying to, like, build him, build that resilience.

“We used to play every other day before training, as part of the warm-up. I used to smash him all over the place.

“He did beat me … it was me and him, [who were ranked] one and two, like Federer and Nadal. If it was televised, it would have broken records.

“He used to, like, almost cry and that, he was so competitive.”

Ronaldo left Manchester United in January after a second spell at the club to make a shocking move to Saudi Arabian side, Al Nassr.

Since signing for the club he has made 10 appearances netting nine times and assisting twice.

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The goalscorer is currently on international duty with Portugal and scored twice in their 4-0 victory over Liechtenstein.

The Selecao face up against Iceland next in their bid to qualify for the 2024 European Championships.

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