EPL: Nevile names most mentally tough player he’s ever seen

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EPL: Nevile names most mentally tough player he’s ever seen

Former Manchester United defender, Phil Neville has revealed the most mentally tough player he ever played with.

He believes that former Red Devils teammate, Cristiano Ronaldo is the most mentally tough player he has ever played with.

Neville notably played alongside the Portugal International at Old Trafford while the Al-Nassr legend was still a youngster.

Both men shared the pitch for 55 times before the former England international decided to move to Everton in 2005.

And four years later, Ronaldo joined Real Madrid.

Neville spoke about Ronaldo in a podcast (via The CR7 Timeline).

“Ronaldo was the biggest example of someone that, from the outside you think, God-given talent, doesn’t need to work hard, just turns up on a football pitch, looks a million dollars, and just goes out there. There was only an hour in the day where he was coached,” Neville said.

“The rest of it was him getting to training early, doing his weights, doing his abdominals, doing his massage, going home, employing a chef to look after his nutrition, and going to bed for three hours in an afternoon,” he added.

Ultimately, the day in the life of Ronaldo, for me, is a perfect example of… When you see him doing the stepovers, after every training session, training session finished, extra training that he would take the ball round the whole circumference of the Carrington training ground…

Doing his stepovers, jogging pace, walking pace, track bikes, step bikes, Cruyff’s, and that was like 3K around the training ground, the day before the game. And people say, ‘Oh, God-given talent.’ No, that lad used to watch YouTube clips of a skill he liked, and then he would go and practice it, then he would take it out to the training ground.

“That lad got absolutely booted. Every single day, off Scholes, my brother, Keane, Van Nistelrooy, that lad used to get up, never moans one bit. The most mentally tough player I’ve ever played with.”