Patrice Evra recalls amusing story about Cristiano Ronaldo's desperation for table tennis win

The former Manchester United forward's frightening list of achievements continue to grow as he seeks his first World Cup with Portugal: his three goals on Friday night marked a pretty useful starting point in the race for the Golden Boot.

Ronaldo's desire to be better than the rest is well documented, but now his former United team-mate Evra has revealed the kind of lengths he will go to to make sure he stays on top.

Evra remembers how Ronaldo was once so unhappy at being beaten by Rio Ferdinand at table tennis that the five-time Ballon d'Or winner got his cousin to buy him a table for training purposes - just so he could get his own back.

"They were playing table tennis and Rio beat him. We were all screaming and Ronaldo was so upset," Evra told ITV Sport's World Cup podcast.

"He trained for two weeks at home, came back and he beat Rio in front of everyone – that’s Cristiano Ronaldo.

"That’s why I'm not surprised today that he wants to win another Golden Ball, why he wants to win the World Cup – because he’s an angry man."

Portugal's next World Cup game is against Morocco on Wednesday.

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