There is a story always worth retelling when the conversation turns to the Munich air disaster and its significance to the modern United — one scene that says a lot about Wayne Rooney favourably, and Cristiano Ronaldo less so.
It goes back to the early part of 2008, in an upstairs room at United’s training ground. Five elderly men in blazers had been invited to talk through the horrors of February 6, 1958, with an audience of broadcast and newspaper journalists.
The club put on a media day and Rooney had been asked to join these proud old men and talk about what it meant to his generation. He said yes, even though he knew he was stepping out of his comfort zone.
Ronaldo later came through the doors and started berating the club’s press officer. The event had overrun and Ronaldo seemed to be saying he was waiting for a lift from Rooney. He was letting it be known that the great Cristiano should not be delayed for anyone.
What Ronaldo, then 22, failed to understand that day was the significance of Munich as the most important and tragic event in the club’s history.
Maybe he would just say he did not realise what exactly it was he was interrupting but it was tempting, nonetheless, to wonder whether it got back to Sir Alex Ferguson — a devoted student of United’s history — and what he would have made of it.
GO FURTHER
The Munich air disaster: The legacy – ‘We don’t want the Babes to be forgotten’
