Mourinho revealed the secret that changed Cristiano Ronaldo's career forever

Cristiano Ronaldo was voted the world's best player for the first time in 2008. That year he had been, along with Wayne Rooney, Manchester United's main star in the Champions League and Premier League titles and for that he got his well-deserved Ballon d'Or award. But back then, he played in a different position to the one he played later, and which still characterizes him today.

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CR7 played as a winger, mainly on the left, but occasionally also on the right. This allowed him to take advantage of his speed and ability to dribble past opposing defenders and assist his teammates with precise crosses. But he also had his disadvantage, as it often prevented him from intervening more often in the game and he was further away from the box.

That changed after his arrival at Real Madrid, where he met José Mourinho. The Portuguese coach had the intelligence to realize that Cristiano's talent was wasted in that part of the field and found a way to improve his performance even more. He revealed this in an interview with Rio Ferdinand on podacast Five.

"You don't coach (Cristiano Ronaldo). Motivation you don't need to give him. Ambition, responsibility, you cannot give him, technically you cannot give. It's just to give some tactical adjustments and let the guy be happy," Mou began. And then he added: "I think Madrid, for him, was a little bit of a transition because for you, he was a winger. Right winger, left winger, out wide, dribbling, attacking people, beating people. In Madrid, he became more the goalscorer he was for the rest of his career."

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He was right

Mourinho recalled when he decided to change CR7's position: "Probably the first time he played as a striker in a big match was Real Madrid vs Barcelona in the cup final where he scored an amazing goal, an amazing header in extra-time. Probably that was the beginning of people having a feeling that animal could be a goalscorer and not just a pure winger". Since then, Cristiano Ronaldo's stats have improved enormously: at Manchester United he had a goal average of 0.40, while at Real Madrid he had 1.03.