No one can ever say that Cristiano Ronaldo lacks the will to win. The five-time Champions League winner has turned himself from a flashy winger with frustratingly little end product into one of the finest and most successful footballers of all time.
That much was clear on Friday night, when the Portuguese almost single-handedly dragged his compatriots to a 3-3 draw with Spain in their opening group game of the World Cup.
It's not just the sport of football that Ronaldo feels the intense need to master however, according to his former teammate Patrice Evra.
The Frenchman knows the Real Madrid star like few other people in the world do, having played alongside him for three years before Ronaldo's move to the La Liga giants.
Evra gave an example of his intimate knowledge of his former colleague while appearing on ITV Sport's World Cup podcast, which included Ronaldo buying himself a tennis table. We'll let the Frenchman take it from here:
With Rio Ferdinand, they were playing table tennis and Rio beat him, and we were all screaming and Ronaldo was so upset.
Then he sent his cousin to buy a tennis table, he trained for two weeks at home and he came back and he beat Rio in front of everyone.
So that’s Cristiano Ronaldo, so that’s why I’m not surprised today why he wants to win another golden ball, why he wants to win the World Cup. Because he’s an angry man.
There's something utterly unsurprising about Ronaldo going to such lengths to prove he's the best, even if it's at a game that's meant to be a bit of fun.
Evra also heavily advised against going to the forward's house for lunch, because all he wants to do is train constantly. Given his machine-like ability to keep pushing himself, one wonders if he will have to be dragged kicking and screaming into retirement.
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