Football Daily - Euro Leagues: The man who built Ronaldo

Episode Date: February 4, 2025

John Bennett is joined by Guillem Balague, Julien Laurens and James Horncastle.How has Cristiano Ronaldo elongated his career? The Portuguese striker is still scoring in Saudi Arabia so a former Manchester United performance coach tells us how he’s done it.Which team in Europe was the busiest in the January transfer window? Which winter window buys could prove a win for the buying clubs? They discuss Mathys Tel and Rennes' deadline-day dash. Also, is Ousmane Dembele finally fulfilling his potential?BBC Sounds / 5 Live commentaries this week: Wed 5 Feb 2000 Newcastle v Arsenal in the Carabao Cup, Thu 6 Feb 2000 Liverpool v Tottenham in the Carabao Cup, Fri 7 Feb 2000 Man Utd v Leicester in the FA Cup.

BBC Sounds. Music, radio, podcasts. This is 5 Live Sports. The Euroleagues with Jon Bennett. Listen on BBC Sounds. Hello and welcome to Euroleagues. I'm Jon Bennett and joining me on this episode, Guillaume Balaguet, Julien Leronde and James Horncastle. Hello to all of you. And it's the first time, guys, that I've spoken to you since the end of the Champions League League stage. So before

we get started, I have an official apology for one of you. I wonder if you can guess which one it is. It's to Mr. Jay Leronde. I hereby apologise for consistently saying every week on the EuroLeague's podcast in 2024, but also early in 2025 as well, that Paris Saint-Germain would get knocked out in the first round. You did. I also apologise for saying that Luis Enrique was

not doing a very good job and that on paper it wasn't a great team because little did I know, Julien, that they would suddenly turn into an absolute goal-scoring machine. Do you accept my apology? Of course I do because I love you dearly. So, no problem.

I think there was a lot of people like you in France. Including Julien Leroy. No, not me, as you know. I can't really, I can't talk badly about that team and that club and anybody involved with it. But it clicked probably at the right time. And now just watch PSG being knocked out by Brest in the playoff rounds.

Yeah, I was going to say that. 11 goals in their last three Champions League games. Where do we expect in the meltdown, James, Guillaume? Will it be quarterfinals or semifinals, do you think? Don't do it again. Yes, I mean, you actually decided to go against PSG and Luis Enrique. Not just any middle

ground team, just two sides that have got really good players. One of them, which I will talk about later, seems to be the hottest striker in Europe at the moment in Dembélé. And Luis Enrique, come on, turns things around. That's what he does always done it

JB to be fair to JP like if he'd been reading the keepers I know JP does you know religiously every day with his cafe au lait um you know he'll have read the stats about how often what in the last eight seasons Jules PSG have gone out in the round of 16 how many times apart from last season when they went to the semis but yeah yeah you're right last 16 seems to be the it in the round of 16. How many times? Apart from last season when they went to the semis. But yeah, you're right. Last 16 seems to be the... It's like five of the last eight years. Yeah, it is the ceiling. But you'll be pleased to hear, Jules, we have got some

Paris Saint-Germain chat coming up a bit later on because on Euroleagues this week, we're going to be discussing is Ousmane Dembele finally living up to his potential? Will that ballon d'or arrive finally in the next few years? We'll talk about the moves around Europe that really stood out in the transfer window.

And happy birthday, Cristiano Ronaldo. 40 on Wednesday. So we're going to be chatting to his former fitness and conditioning coach to ask how he stayed scoring goals for so long. And of course, we have his biographer with us today as well, Guillaume Balaguet, to talk Cristiano. But let's start with the transfer window. It has shut now until the summer.

You'll be relieved to hear. So what was it like in France, Italy and Spain? Spoiler alert, it was extremely quiet in Spain. We'll get to that very, very shortly. Hardly anything spent. But the opposite for that was one club in France, Julien. Rennes. Who saw this coming?

They have spent a lot of money throughout the whole transfer window, but particularly on deadline day. They were really busy, weren't they, Rennes? Incredible. 85 million they spent through the whole of January. And they started very quickly because they were the first team to register their first transfer on January the 1st.

But then they finished with a flurry, as you say, JB, with six new players arriving on Monday. So on transfer deadline day, it was exactly what they did. They transferred players on that deadline.

Literally, that's what they did. Their medical staff had never been so busy. Eric Roland, their main doctor there, having those players queuing, literally outside of his office to go through their medicals. But they're 15th in the table.

They've had a new manager again in Habib Bey, the former Senegal international and Newcastle defender. That's the third manager already this season. Jorge Sampaoli just never worked out, was sacked after 10 league games where he lost seven of them. And I guess if you have a new manager

who comes in at the time of a transfer window and you are a very rich family, like the Pino family who own the club, then you think... And if you've got Italians running the recruitment, Ricky Massara, Henry Caballos. Yeah, Ricky Massara as well. Frederic Massara, who's in charge, who didn't do that great of a job in the recruitment. Ricky Massara, Henry Caballos. Yeah, Ricky Massara as well. Frederic Massara,

who's in charge, who didn't do that great of a job in the summer. And as we've said, I was already sacked two managers since taking over AREN in the summer. But this time he had to get it right. And there's a lot of very interesting signing

amongst the 10 players that have arrived in January. Yeah, you mentioned they're their owners. They're really rich, aren't they, AREN? Some people might not know this. So they're owned by a company called Artemis. Yes, it's the Pino family. The Pino family.

Do you know the Hollywood link here? Samahayek, of course. Yes, of course. She's married to one of the sons. She likes tacos at my local taqueria. Really? Yeah, because Samahayek spends some of her time in London and

yeah she's Mexican the best tacos in London I think by her recommendation is not too far away from where I live it's Taqueria she loves the crepe in Rennes and in Brittany you could go and recommend some signings

to her while she's there. Well, I'd recommend she has the Canitas at Taqueria, the Al Pastor, do some great fish tacos as well. I mean, yeah, anyway. I didn't expect this Salma Hayek knowledge when I asked that question. So they're 15th, aren't they?

Is this a bit of a gamble though? Like you say, Javier Bay has just taken over. They're six points above the relegation zone, spending all this money. They're some good players, aren't they? Like Bree Samba, the goalkeeper. There's Seco Fofana, AFCON winner. But is this a bit of a gamble,

spending all this money in January? Yeah, because some of them feel like panic buys. Not so much panic as in like, let's just... But players maybe, if things had gone well for them this season, and let's say they were between 6 and 8 or 6 and 10, they would have probably gone for younger players to start with, not 30-year-old or 29-year-old, because, as we know, it's then difficult either to sell again or for how

many years would they be at the top of their of their game so ideally that was not really the plan but because Ricky Massara as we mentioned was had to respond to everything bad that happened to and really everything went against them between from day one in this season to recently, he had to do something. They won at the weekend, which was Habibay's debut, his first game, really good. Not the greatest of wins against Strasbourg, but it counts. Late goal, perfect at home.

And now, hopefully, they will build with some of those new players. They're pretty much with 10 new players, not that all of them will be starters, but imagine the new team you can almost have with that. So I think it'd be fun for Happy Bay to build something different now and I think they needed to.

So that is Rennes. Follow their progress for the rest of the season. See how that all works out. A couple of other moves with a French connection. Kevin Danso, Lance de Tottenham.

He's been at Lance since 2021. He's been in English football before with Southampton. Mathis Tell, this is really interesting, isn't it? 19-year-old, France under-21 forward, Paris born and bred from Sarcelles. He was described a few years ago as one of the biggest talents in Europe. Guillaume, let's get your take on this.

Matis Tell to Tottenham, is that a signing that excites you? Do you think he could make a difference for them in the second half of the season on loan? If you're going to go somewhere that has got room for improvement and you can benefit from it, it must be very convincing, Angie, the way he spoke to him by the sounds of it. But you are talking about somebody that is still,

in my eyes, a bit of an enigma. When we start seeing him play, he looked like he could do everything. And that tends to be a problem in modern football. You need to do something very, very well, not just be able to do absolutely everything and shine as he was doing in the 17s and the 19s. And it goes to Bayern,

and I think he's felt that, despite a very good start, where does he fit in this position of football that most big teams play, unless you are Real Madrid? And he doesn't seem to fit. Even when Harry Kane gets injured, they explore the possibilities in that role. He could have played there, but Musiala goes there,

Thomas Muller goes there. He's not trusted generally as a winger, so he's a talent to be moulded. And he has to do it in a place where somebody, the manager, goes back to that and says, come here, because I'm just going to put you straight in the front line. You're going to be absolutely special for me.

And you hope that, yeah, he's got the talent for it, that his first touch is fantastic. I love watching him do the dribbles and everything else, but can he do, perhaps, regularly, consistently, the simple thing and the thing that will really take him to the top? I think he's a very special talent, really, and I'm a bit biased, obviously. Because he's Paris Bonn-Embre.

There you go. Yeah, Paris Bonn-Embre. You said it, not me. Since he was 15, really, top clubs were after him. And the fact that Max Herbel, who is the Bayern Munich sporting director, who said once Matisse has announced to the club that he wanted to leave and go on loan or somewhere else to have more game time, Max Herbel said he never received so many calls from other clubs

for one of his players ever. And he's been in this game for a very long time. He shows you how coveted I think Matistel was and Guillaume is right, he's still a young player so there's still a lot of room for improvement in his own game. We don't really know how high he can go and exactly what

he can do a short term like this with a club like Spurs but certainly the way they play fits his quality for sure. He's a nine. I even think he's probably a better second striker than a nine,

but not many people play with two forwards now anymore. So he will play up front certainly until Dominic Solanke comes back from injury, which is in a while.

So he will have a lot of games, a lot of game time. He will have to get used to the Premier League, of course, and to Spurs and Ange, but I think he's got all the qualities to do really well

for a very attacking team like they are. And for that, I think the fact that he spoke to Poste Coglu on Monday morning convinced him really to change his mind because first he was a bit reluctant to go to Spurs. He's purely on that because what Ange said to him about where he

would play, how much he would play, the way the team would play, just ticked all the boxes for him and I think he's very excited to start maybe

even on Thursday against Liverpool. So those are the moves connected to French football. Over to Italy now and AC Milan looked at Rennes

and they said hold my espresso we're going to be even more busy than you. So João Felix comes in, Santiago Jimenez, Warren Bondo.

I could go on. They let go Benacer, didn't they, to Marseille. Why so busy? Is this Sergio Conceição, James, making his mark on AC Milan? Particularly when it comes to João Felix. João Felix, who was the most high-profile signing on deadline day in Italy. That was a request personal from Sergio Conceição, which I found personally quite interesting. Because when you look at need across teams in Serie A, maybe the team that needed João Felix the most was Napoli,

because Gavaraz Scalia had gone to PSG. Instead, they were never interested in him. And I thought, why? Is that because Antonio Conte sees Jao Felix through the same prism as Diego Simeone? Well, Sergio Conceição is kind of cut from the same cloth as Diego Simeone. So very curious, you know, whether this has something to do with Jorge Mendes being the agent of Conceição and the person who negotiated Rafael Leal's contract extension at AC Milan. I'll let you decide on that one. But yeah, very busy in part because, as you mentioned, JB, they changed manager between Christmas and New Year. They sacked Paolo Fonseca, brought in Sergio

Conceição. They've essentially completely disowned the transfer window that was overseen by zlatan ibrahimovic in the summer alvaro murata who is signed has been moved to galatasaray on loan yeah they were willing to entertain offers for strahinia pavlovich who they signed as well they also had a deal lined up for Emerson Real only for Conte South to start him against Girona. I think three minutes into that game he was injured so stopped any move

for Emerson Real. So the only football he's playing at the moment is FIFA on Twitch which you can watch. Is he good at it? Is he better at it than football? Jules, I've been harsh enough on Emerson Royale since he's been an AC Milan player. I was just asking. I will refrain whilst he is recovering from injury. But yeah, Milan very busy, although not the biggest spenders in Serie A because the big surprise, I suppose like in France with Rennes, is that

Como, Cesc Fabregas' Como spent more than 50 million and the player that was probably most high profile, Dele Alli, cost them nothing. That is Italy. We talk France. On to Spain now and a bit of tumbleweed passes across the studio because it was so quiet, wasn't it, in Spain?

So La Liga, this is from your social media, Guillaume. I'll copy this, in Spain? So La Liga, this is from your social media, Guillem. I'll copy this from your social media. La Liga has spent 2.6 million euros in January, the lowest in a decade, and 2.5 million was on one transfer, and they sold 22

million euros. Is that correct? Why so quiet? Is that a good thing, do you think, that they're not really spending much in January? The fridge is empty. There's nothing in it. Because most people have used their budget in the summer, where it makes sense to use it. And, you know, the financial regulations of La Liga are one of the strongest in Europe. So nobody wants to fall of that.

So there will be teams waiting for opportunities, but mostly teams willing to sell if anybody was buying. So to those 22 million, after I put that message, you have to add the about 10 million that Barcelona received

for Nico Gonzalez. And that's it. 30 odd million that has come in and no more has been spent, 2.6, that's it. And it is, in a way, good planning or, you know, thinking that what are you really going to get from a January transfer.

Generally, especially in football today, where players have got so many instructions when they go onto the pitch, knowing exactly the relationship to the teammates and the distance to the ball and all that, and somebody's going to come in and make an impact. It's not going to happen often. Do they have the daily transfer window TV shows in Spain?

It must have been a tough fill for a month. I was listening to some of it and we were talking about referees and Real Madrid. The other stuff was too boring. Yeah, lots to talk about to be fair always in always in Spain stay with us

very shortly we'll discuss Cristiano Ronaldo reaching the young age of 40 this is 5 Live Sports the EuroLeagues with John Bennett

listen on BBC Sounds the 72 plus on the Football Daily I'm Aaron Paul Sounds. The 72 Plus. On the Football Daily. I'm Aaron Paul. And I'm Joby Mackinac. And on Wednesdays on the Football Daily we bring you 72 Plus, the home of the EFL from Five Life Sport. As we'll get stuck into the latest from the Football League and beyond.

We're punching well above our weight already. We're a part-time team in a full-time league. Hopefully we can stay in the league and that is the aim. We're in a great position at the moment and long may that continue. That's 72 Plus, the EFL podcast only on the Football Daily. Listen on BBC Sounds. This is EuroLeague's On5 Live Sport with me, John Bennett. We've got Guillaume Balaguer here, Julien Leronde and James Horncastle.

And it's a big day in the life of Cristiano Ronaldo on Wednesday. He turns 40. Happy birthday, Cristiano. There's probably been more written about Ronaldo than any other footballer of his generation, most of it by Guillaume. Messi, for the record, is 37, 38 in June. So his achievements include 217 caps for Portugal,

135 goals, Ballon d'Or five times, titles in England, Spain, Italy, Champions League winner five times. But one of the most remarkable things about Ronaldo, of course, is that having made his first team debut for Sporting in August 2002, he is still going more than two decades later, still scoring goals in the Saudi Pro League, and he wants to push through to play at the World Cup in 2026.

So we wanted an insight on EuroLeague into how he's managed to stay in top physical shape for so long. No one better to talk to than Mick Clegg, who was the power and development trainer at Manchester United between 2000 and 2011 worked extremely closely with Cristiano Ronaldo as the forward blossomed during his time at Old Trafford. And Mick is with us now. Mick, thank you so much for joining us on EuroLeagues. It's an incredible achievement for an outfield player with so many miles on the clock to still be playing. You worked with him in his late teens and his 20s.

Did you always think, knowing him back then, that he could go on so long? Well, no, I knew that he wanted to. But you see, people have got to provide the evidence. And the evidence to me was watching him over them years, five and a half years that I worked with him. And I've looked at loads of great people since then because i'm still working now yeah i love my job i love coaching and i'm looking into different ways of thinking about players and what they do and how they do it and um i think Cristiano is in the league of Leonardo da Vinci,

Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Nikola Tesla, and Stephen Hawkins. And what are they? They're all geniuses. And he's a genius because he came along as a young lad with an idea, with a thought, with seeing what he can do, and thinking, I could develop and get even better. was always looking ahead he was always looking forward but in looking ahead and looking forward you've got to look deeply into what you need to do to become better now the great thing when he came to see me and he put this challenge down that he was going to be better than ryan gigs

is that what he said straight away is that what he said straight away when you first met him in the very first session yeah when he came in the gym he said straight away? Is that what he said straight away when you first met him? In the very first session, yeah. When he came in the gym, he said, I'm going to be the best player in the world, which I've heard various things before, but not in the way that he said it. But he said that I'm going to do everything necessary to be the best player in the world.

And it was quite startling because he was very determined in what he was going to say. But obviously, from a coaching point of view, you think, well, what is he basing that idea on? Because I've heard of loads of people who said they're going to be this, that, and the other. But then when you look at their plan, it's fruitless. Well, his cupboard or fridge that you were talking about before

was always full. It was always full of ideas, of thoughts, of images, of what he really wanted to create and do and that's why over the years after coming out of actual being a professional football club i'm looking at all these different athletes and different people and my main um work is now on the brain what is the brain capable of doing how do we we improve the brain? How do we stop it decaying as much as we can? And obviously I've looked at genius. And Cristiano's a genius.

And so are them other guys geniuses. You know, Leonardo there, he's got his paintbrush and all the rest of it, and he's doing his painting. And then Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein with a pen and everything. And they become geniuses, physicists and mathematicians and engineers well cristiano is on a bit of a different level because i've not seen any of them doing that their stuff with the pen in their foot he's doing all this using his feet to become a great footballer, but putting everything behind him in his ability to be able to play, to be exciting, to be creative, to be a genius.

And when you look at what he can do out on the pitch, to me, it's more genius than all the other people I've talked about. Now, a lot of people disagree with that, but I'm not bothered with people who disagree with me because I've been disagreed with a lot of people disagree with that, but I'm not bothered with people who disagree with me, because I've been disagreed with a lot of times, but I've also seen the progress of things when I've stuck to my guns.

Mick, so he comes to see you, and he says, this is where I want to be, and you say, okay, I guess you said to him, I'm going to help you. Did he always respond and more, probably, to what you were saying so if you were saying to him let's do 10 um 10 press-ups for example or 50 press-ups he would go to 75 or was there always that in him because he seems to have always been so competitive in everything that

he did not just wanting to be the best and the best ever but also in pushing himself okay you tell me 50 i would do 100 you give me 100 to do i will do 150 was that something that he had from a very young age as well absolutely not that would be crazy you see you have to use the overload training principle if i say to do in 10 he do 10 and then the next time 11 then 12 and then 13 and 14 he's a genius because he really thinks about how you can achieve these things and having the proper process by which to do that you know he wants it to be great on the ball so he played with the ball then he played with different ideas he would knock it different ways you know different parts of his foot and he's creative all the time he would never do something

outrageous like that ask him for 50 and he does 100. It'd be overtraining. The next day, he's not good. You know, so when we're looking at him still playing at 40 years old, it's because he thinks injury prevention as well as performance training. He looks at injury prevention and the ability to be able to play through his nutrition through his sleep through his afternoon nap his siesta all these different things he put it together as a young lad and developed it bit by bit way beyond when he was 18 and coming to see me now prior to that like say Ryan Giggs was the man at man united he was way above everybody else from my point of view looking at what he did and cristiano come said i want to be better than him

and i'll do everything it takes and the great thing is he was able to do that because he totally focused in on what he wanted to do and again that's why i go to genius mick good to talk to you again. You told me he told you I'm going to be the best in the world and you are going to help me. What he didn't realize and that he had come across

an obsessed fitness coach in you and you're not a football man and never will be. You are a scholar of the human body and its limitations and two of your sons coached by you embarked in weightlifting careers and never will be, you are a scholar of the human body and its limitations, and two of your sons, coached by you, embarked in weightlifting careers. So you have learned along the way new things,

which others have taken advantage of, like your sons. But in the case of Christian, at the point of his appearing and saying, you're going to help me, and not just you, but every single coach that was at the training ground at Manchester United at the time told me is that they felt pushed by him. So he comes in and he will tell you, I want to be the best. Go on. You then, of course, did what you knew that could help him. But then spend the evening trying to learn new things to give it to him. And all the coaches did the same, especially when he walked around the corridors

and said, today training was rubbish. Went away. And everybody couldn't sleep for hours because they had to train much better the next day. So you got to a point of knowledge, body of knowledge by working with Cristiano that's unique and has helped in your career, of course. Yeah, he was unique.

He taught me so much. You see, you know, my gym here, I've got the pictures of all the players that I work with, but a lot of the main players that I work with. And as I go around the gym and look at these pictures, they all taught me something. Now, I tried to give them the best I had, but without them telling me what they needed,

because they was there in the battle. You can't learn quickly enough to be able to give them the best i had but without them telling me what they needed because they was there in the battle you can't learn quickly enough to be able to give what you want unless they're telling you directly and they tell you the feelings about it and you know how they struggled with this or how they found this easy so they give you such important advice rudy van nistelroy was one of the big ones for doing that in fact my studies on the brain were based on Rud. And then, of course, Cristiano came along and I went on from that. But you're looking for understanding what they want and then ways of being able to give them what they need. And that's what challenges you as a person, you know, as a coach as a human being i mean i'm a dad i had

five kids and i tried to help them the most i could and then their mates came along then went in schools etc but you're always looking for the ways of helping them to get what they really need and if you're not doing that you're not doing a good job mick, you talk about Cristiano coming in and challenging you and you learning from him. What is the day you remember most? What's the teachable kind of moment that you remember most from working with Cristiano? The day was that day when he walked in and he said what he was going to do. Because as a coach, if somebody tells you what they're going to do, they put it all out there. It's that simple because all you do is

say, oh, you're going to do this, that and the other. Well, I'm going to watch you. I'm going to see what you're doing. What was it, Mick? You seem to be saying that he came in with an extremely precise plan. Like, you know, it feels like it was outlined, you know, sort of moment by moment, step by step.

Like, what was that plan that he came in with you where you're like, oh, wow, okay. It's all out there for me brilliant well yeah i think yeah i think willem uh said it where his plan was to get every bit of information he could add to the people that were going to coach him and challenge them which he did and you know i i always found it was very very exciting the challenge you know what i mean i never felt pressurized by him. I always felt that this is a really exciting lad and he fits my box. You know what I mean? And I'm going to love the journey because I've been training with,

obviously, like I say, Ryan and, you know, Roy Keane and all them people. But this is a new guy. He's a little bit different. And it turned out to be he's going to be a lot different. Now, talking about him being 40 tomorrow, I've said for a long, long time, I'm sure I would have told Gwilym that he will not stop playing football

until he's beaten Ryan Giggs' playing to 40. I was absolutely certain of that. And I'm so glad that, you know, he's still on the track. How long do you think he can go on for then? He's 40 years old now. He's targeting the World Cup next year. What age limit are you putting on Ronaldo at the moment? Well, I'm not putting an age limit on it

because I believe in the heart that Cristiano is going to go on from just playing football. I believe he's got everything necessary to become a great manager. But obviously, that has to be um you know it has to go on a certain mission if you like it has to be cultivated right i think he's got all the information in there he knows how you need to play he knows what it needs to be like in the in the dressing room and out on the on the training pitch and how you must get together to play in the big games

he's got all that information and he's a very emotional person that's one of the big things that i loved about him very very emotional he didn't mind showing you his feelings um he's physical obviously and uh the mentality of the guy was incredible but i always felt this spiritual aspect of cristiano and what happens is you get a guy like that he's a greater vision in my in the way that i see it he has a greater vision to what is possible with people and you see the frustrations of when things have gone wrong, even with his own son, with that bit about the Coca-Cola and having his phone too much. You can see that his whole mind is about creating something great. And so from a spiritual point of view,

you know, we was all created by God in heaven, of course, and he knows that. And so he wants to do something with his ability to create. And I think it could well be he goes down the route of becoming a football manager. Now, it's got all sorts of problems as being a football manager. I mean, I've worked alongside Roy Keane and, you know, other people going into that.

Oli Gunnar Solskjaer as well, you know, great guys. But it's really difficult. Very, very difficult. And I think you'll find a way of approaching the subject and getting on and doing really, really well. Mick,

I think a lot of people as well are pretty amazed of the body that he still has as of today, as 40 years old, obviously incredible fitness-wise and everything. And you mentioned the discipline

that you need to have to be able to keep going like that until you're 40. And I guess every day he goes through those fitness sessions that can't be easy to keep that body. But you mentioned earlier about not wanting to get injured

and trying to do everything you could to prevent those injuries because he wanted to play as much as possible and for as long as possible. How do you do that? Because obviously he has a lot of pace, right? So I guess to never get issues with his hamstring, he had to develop the upper

body and especially the abs very, very much, I guess, to prevent injuries from hamstrings and stuff like that? You need to develop balance. He's got the balance, and that's what it's about. He's making sure everything's in there when it comes to training physically.

So you come into the gym early, like he's always one of the first to be there. Why? Because he wants to do injury prevention, and that's getting his body in shape. He needs to make sure he has enough time to get everything ready ready so when he gets out on the pitch and you're under pressure by trying to develop your skills because skills are the most important thing in football people think nowadays it's running or it's going in the gym no it's not it's playing football you've got to be able to use that ball put it in the places get the ball at certain times and with certain forces to make sure that football is most important thing and you don't get injured at the same time he has been doing that

he's been spending so much time on every aspect so far as i can see that that is the reason he is what he is and he's doing what he's doing. Injury prevention is something you do before going out on the park, you know what I mean? And it's not just about mids and upper bodies and hamstrings. It's about the whole physical aspects and the mental, because a big thing is confidence. If you know you've done the right training, if you know you've done everything, including praying to God, of course,

if you do everything and you go out there, you've got a confident man on your hands. There isn't that many confident men on their hands, really, that I see. A lot of them fall short. And I don't think he does because he's thoughtful. Sorry. Let me tell you,

let me ask you two questions about, both of them have to do with endings. I think one of the genius of Cristiano Ronaldo is the impression he makes on people. You hear Mick talk and how long ago was it that you were with him, but still feels he broke your heart in a way because you two were creating something unique, special that hadn't been done. How to build a body to be the best in the world at football. And you hadn't tested it with anybody because you'd never done it. He's never done it before. Obviously, there was no reference point.

So you two created a body of work that was unique and magic. And when he left, he left a big vacuum. And no other player that came to you after that saying, I want to be the best in the world. Do you believe them? You probably didn't because they didn't put so much in it as Cristiano did. It was like that, wasn't it? It was a vacuum when he left. Yeah, it was.

Yeah. And, you know, things went wrong for me at United in the end because of, you know, things went wrong for me at United in the end because of, you know, various situations. But I decided what I want to do now is, you know, Cristiano's only made of blood and bone and sinews, et cetera, you know, and a brain, of course. And is it possible, you know, he was from Portugal, that little island,

but there's lots of other human beings from other places. Is it possible that there are more people like him? And I've been here in my little shed at the side of a canal and, you know, railway line and just hoped that somebody would come along who's got anything like Cristiano's had. And they are so remote. The other question is the other ending. So he said to me that he was going to retire at 41. That was a long time ago.

Now seems a little bit premature to retire at 41. He wants a World Cup and whatever else. But this is something I've discussed with you in the past. Is the running machine that he's on, when he stops, is he going to collapse? Because he seems to want to want it more and more and more. Yes, fine. But it's never enough.

And he doesn't seem to be prepared for the end. You're talking about the head. Do you think he is prepared for the end. You're talking about the head, do you think he's prepared for the end at some point? I think he is and that's why I think he'll go into management but he'll want to be a player manager at first but the one

thing that he will lack as time goes by is you lose speed when you get older. You can get far stronger than you were years before, but strength isn't that important in football. It's about being really, really fast and reactive. That is where he needs help,

and there are various things you can do for that. But speed and reaction for an older person is so important if you want to do what he's going to do. And so if I had advice to give to Cristiano, it would be work on his speed and reaction. And that will keep you going for a lot longer. Mick, thank you so much

for joining us on EuroLeagues. That was absolutely brilliant. That was Mick Clegg, the power development trainer at Manchester United between 2000 and 2011. As you heard, so influential on Cristiano Ronaldo

celebrating his birthday. Let's move on on EuroLeague to talk about Ousmane Dembele. Well, we've been waiting for this for a long time, haven't we? Finally, finally, at the age of 27, he's living up to his potential over the last couple of months. So he'd scored just one career hat-trick until last week. Then he went and scored two in four days. Scored three against Stuttgart in that crucial Champions League game. Then he scored another three against Brest,

who Paris Saint-Germain will be playing in the Champions League playoffs. He's been tipped for greatness since he was a teenager, hasn't he, Jules? And we've seen glimpses, haven't we? I mean, at Borussia Dortmund, he did really well. Then that move to Barcelona where there were glimpses haven't we I mean Borussia Dortmund he did really well then that move to Barcelona where there were glimpses but it was troubled and then Paris Saint-Germain

finally finally is it coming good do you think do you think this is here to stay now this was Mandembele well I hope

I hope for him I hope for the club obviously I don't think any of us not even him could have fought in the start of 2025 like he's having

because that's 14 goals now in eight games in all competitions you mentioned the back-to-back hat-tricks in four days and you mentioned that the only one the only other one he had in his career which was back in 2016 for Rennes so the guy waits eight years and a half for a hat-trick and then two comes in four days which is ridiculous really I think it's credit to him to start with because I think there was a lot of time, a lot of years where he was really immature, that he was lacking efficiency,

not because he didn't care. You always want to score goals or assist goals, but because I don't think he had the discipline technically and mentally to be able to get that efficiency going and that composure. I think he was always a bit nonchalant in some ways, certainly in his approach of football. That has changed.

I think it's a lot of credit to Luis Enrique for having developed Ousmane Dembele into this player, the player that he is now. They've done a lot of work together on the training pitch, but also of it in terms of visualization and things that you should do in the box. And let's not forget that Ousmane Dembele was a winger, but like a pure winger by the touchline, really.

This is what he would do. So for him to be more in the box, have those chances, I think there was a lot of things that he still had to learn in terms of finishing, and he's doing that now. So there's also the bet that he made with to learn in terms of finishing and he's doing that now so there's also the bet that he made with his

friends about expensive watches that if he gets to a certain amount of goals

this season they will buy him a Patek Philippe or Rolex so he already has

plenty of very expensive watches yeah but it's always good to have a new one you know

but it's all a process isn't it and that process for what I've been following of his career I started at Barcelona two years, the last two years at Barcelona, where he had more continuity, had his own physio, physical coach as well, work at home. used to go to France to receive treatment that had to do with prevention. Nutrition changed, became a father in that period and started seeing things differently. And he came to Paris.

And even though Mbappé was there, he was told you're going to be a protagonist. And he loves football, loves to understand what's behind the decisions and how to improve, et cetera. But he loves the idea of being the star as well. So he was invited to be ambitious and then there was another step in the summer he had a conversation with Luis Enrique and the coach

told him great assists great what you do to the team great when you do without the ball fantastic but now that Kylian Mbappé is gone we want an extra thing we want goals we want you to win games we want you to be egotistical to help the team and to add to that the coaching staff started saying to him ballon d'or ballon d'or ballon d'or if you actually do the things well if you add the assists that you added last season and you compared only a small percentage more the chances that you added last season. And you compared only a small percentage more the chances that you've got Ballon d'Or. And if we get collective success...

He has got that, hasn't he? He has got what it takes to win Ballon d'Or, hasn't he? Two foot skill. Absolutely. He's got everything. 19 goals. And what is it?

10 with the right, 7 with the left, 2 with the head. It's just incredible. There's been a change of tactical change as well hasn't it in the last month and a half

he's actually playing more through the centre in the middle with the ability of getting more more of the ball becoming more of a line sometimes

more freedom which means the football goes through him more so he's in the perfect moment to become yeah that candidate So how excited are you Jules

because this is a I'm loving the new generation, joking apart, of Paris Saint-Germain, where it's less about the Galacticos, it's more about French players and young players and particularly Paris players as well, making the most of that talent. And we thought they didn't have the Galacticos, but

they have a star here, haven't they? So how excited are you from a Paris Saint-Germain perspective, but also the French national team as well going forward? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's great for everyone, for Ousmane himself, for PSG, for Luis Enrique, for Deschamps, for the national team. Kylian Mbappé had some really nice words in L'Equipe today.

They did a big double page on Dembele and all his progress, everything we've just said. And both Deschamps and Mbappé were also full of praise, and rightly so, and telling him, like, don't fix your self-limits because you are that good. And he has always been. Remember, I know we've said it many times, but remember that time in the end where he was asked after the game

in a flash interview, which one is your best foot? Because we've seen you hit, you know, striking the ball with your right, but also dribbling with your... And he goes like, well, it depends. It depends what? Well, it depends. Penalties, I like to take it

with the left foot, but I also like to dribble. It was unbelievable. We've rarely seen a player with both feet like him, two-footed like him. There are not really that many Ryan Cherky,

Sandeep Cazorla. There's a few there and there, but not that many and not certainly with the pace that he also has. So incredible talent. And finally, at 27, we see him maturing and getting where we always thought he could get. That is it for Euroleagues this week.

Thanks so much to Guillaume, Julien and James. Make sure you subscribe to the Football Daily on BBC Sounds so you never miss an upload. Up next, 72 Plus with Aaron Paul, Joby McEnuff and the Shrewsbury Town boss, Gareth Ainsworth.

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