‘Playing with Rooney, Ronaldo and Tevez at Manchester United was like a PlayStation game’ Nani on being part of the Red Devils’ all-action forward line

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Manchester United had a potent attacking corps between 2007 and 2009

Manchester United
Cristiano Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez and Wayne Rooney formed an explosive Manchester United frontline (Image credit: Getty)

The Manchester United side of the late-2000s was one of Sir Alex Ferguson’s most exciting creations.

This was a side defined by a swaggering front line that contained one of the best attacking corps in Europe, with opponents having to pick their poison when the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez and Wayne Rooney were bearing down on them.

Nani on playing alongside Rooney, Tevez and Ronaldo

Nani in action for Manchester United, August 2008

Nani joined Manchester United in 2007 (Image credit: Alamy)

“It was like a PlayStation game,” Nani says to FourFourTwo when recalling that Red Devils vintage.

“When all of us were on the pitch together, everything became easier because you knew any one of them could produce a moment of genius to change the game.

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“Around those stars, football felt simple – all you had to do was give them a good pass and they’d take care of the rest.”

The Ronaldo-Rooney-Tevez axis was in operation during the 2007/08 and 2008/09 seasons, with that side winning two Premier League titles, plus the 2008 Champions League and the League Cup in 2009.

It was broken up when Ronaldo left Old Trafford for Real Madrid for a world record fee of £80 million in the summer of 2009. Nani, who had arrived at the club in 2007, was seen as the heir apparent for his compatriot. Did he feel pressure to fill Ronaldo’s boots?

“No,” he insists. “Pressure, when you understand it properly, becomes responsibility. I was confident I could be a player capable of helping to compensate for Cristiano’s absence.

Cristiano Ronaldo with the Champions League trophy, holding up five fingers to celebrate his fifth victory in the competition after Real Madrid defeated Liverpool in the 2018 final

The Ronaldo-Rooney-Tevez frontline broke up when Ronaldo joined Real Madrid in 2009 (Image credit: Alamy)

“I think that belief, together with the commitment I showed, was what allowed me to have such strong seasons at United. Unfortunately, some injuries limited my performances, but overall I consider my time at the club to have been very good.

“The trust of my team-mates and the coaching staff was also key in making the post-Cristiano era a positive one.”

Joe Mewis
Joe Mewis

For more than a decade, Joe Mewis has worked in football journalism as a reporter and editor. Mewis has had stints at Mirror Football and LeedsLive among others and worked at FourFourTwo throughout Euro 2024, reporting on the tournament. In addition to his journalist work, Mewis is also the author of four football history books that include times on Leeds United and the England national team. Now working as a digital marketing coordinator at Harrogate Town, too, Mewis counts some of his best career moments as being in the iconic Spygate press conference under Marcelo Bielsa and seeing his beloved Leeds lift the Championship trophy during lockdown.

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