Liverpool fans aren’t necessarily that keen on Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.

A big chunk of that is down to the fact that Ronaldo spent six years at bitter rivals Manchester United.

But before he moved to United, he broke into the Sporting first-team in the Portuguese Primeira Liga.

While Ronaldo was honing his skills to become the world’s best striker, Phil Babb was plying his trade at Sporting too.

You’ll remember Babb from Liverpool and Republic of Ireland in the ’90s.

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Babb appeared on Sky Sports’ Fantasy Football programme this weekend, and revealed a time when he forearm smashed Ronaldo, while the fledgling talent was training with the senior side.

Here’s how Babb puts it:

Whether it was the character-building experience of being chinned by Babb, the hours of training and natural talent, or a combination of the two that made Ronaldo one of the greatest players of all time, we’ll never know.

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