UEFA Champions League: Ronaldo reminds Bale who is boss at Real Madrid

Portuguese star scores hat-trick to help team demolish Galatasaray 6-1.

MADRID: With his hat-trick against Galatasaray, Cristiano Ronaldo reminded new Real Madrid teammate Gareth Bale who is the boss on the pitch, after the Welshman had surpassed him off as the world’s most expensive player.

The Portuguese forward grabbed three second-half goals as Real romped to a 6-1 away win in their Champions League Group B opener on Tuesday. Isco scored the opener while Karim Benzema grabbed a brace.

Bale’s arrival from Tottenham Hotspur for €100 million this month, surpassing the then-record of €94 million they paid for Ronaldo in 2009, prompted the club to move swiftly to keep their leading scorer happy.

Ronaldo agreed to a new contract with Real President Florentino Perez on Sunday which ties him until 2018 and reportedly makes him the world’s highest-paid player with a net annual wage of some €17 million.

“The last few days have been great for me,” Ronaldo told reporters. “I am very pleased. We did what we had to do, which was to win, and the others drew [Copenhagen held Juventus 1-1], which is even better.

“Our next two games are at home so if we win them we will be doing really well towards making the next stage.”

Moyes salutes ‘world-class’ Rooney

Manchester United manager David Moyes lavished praise on Wayne Rooney after the striker inspired his side to a 4-2 victory over Bayer Leverkusen.

The England striker scored twice and set up a late goal for Antonio Valencia to give the Premier League champions a strong start in Group A and further confirm his commitment to the United cause.

Moyes spent his first close season at Old Trafford fighting to keep Rooney at the club amid interest from Chelsea, and with three goals in two games, the 27-year-old has now reached the milestone of 200 goals for United.

He requires 50 further goals to surpass Bobby Charlton as United’s all-time leading scorer and Moyes says the prospect of a place in the club’s history books helped persuade the former Everton player to stay put.

“It was something that we made him aware of,” said Moyes. “More importantly, I wanted to get him back in really good condition and mentally correct when he was ready to play.

“I think you see him. He’s moving as well as he has done, he’s in a good place in himself at the moment, and obviously any centre-forward who’s scoring goals feels good about himself.

“If you want to win the Champions League, you need to have several world-class players and Wayne would certainly come into that category.”

Rooney is only the fourth player to have reached a double-century of United goals, after Charlton (249), Denis Law (237) and Jack Rowley (211).

Robin Van Persie also scored a goal for United.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19^th, 2013.

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