Tuesday was just another day at Carrington. Half an hour before training began, Cristiano Ronaldo was in the gym, sculpting his body. Half an hour after training, Ronaldo was still on the practice ground buffing his skill. With Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs, Anderson and Nani - who are regular company in his ritual - the Portuguese spent 30 minutes striking free kick after free kick. On Friday he did the same. Of Ronaldo's blink-inducing dead ball goal against Portsmouth on Wednesday, Sir Alex Ferguson said: "There's no fluke about it, I see him practice all the time in training," repeating what he'd said after other recent free kicks against Newcastle, Sunderland and Sporting Lisbon.
Practice is one of Ferguson's tenets. As a young coach he was devising routines for players to repeat in an era when many a "training session" amounted to jogging round the pitch and a game of five-a-side. "Do you want to become the best player in the world?" he'll ask when his No 7 shows signs of slacking, but those occasions are rare. The hair gel, earrings and flash boots hide in Ronaldo an old-fashioned professionalism, a desire for self-improvement that inspires the time he puts in at Carrington. How many of us volunteer for an extra hour's work every day? When Wednesday's free kick flew past a befuddled David James, Ronaldo's self-congratulating shrug was the least he was entitled to.
Not long ago, when Ronaldo lined up a free kick at Old Trafford there were groans rather than anticipatory murmurs and spectators would rehearse ducking procedures rather than whipping out their camera phones. His improvement is palpable. He has scored direct from free kicks six times in his five Premier League seasons, but four in the past 14 months. In December 2005 he said: "Nowadays it doesn't matter what tricks I do, they have to be of use to the team and what I practice now are things that will help the team. If you want to be one of the best players in the world - which I do - you have to learn all the time and another thing I have to do is get more goals. I've been working on that a lot. In a couple of years, if I'm scoring more, people will think better of me."
It was not idle talk. Ronaldo's scoring has mushroomed since and he has latched on to every scoring opportunity. When Ruud van Nistelrooy departed, he became Manchester United's penalty-taker. Around the same time he nagged Ryan Giggs into letting him share - and ultimately appropriate - duties as United's post-David Beckham free kick taker. Beckham scored 24% of his league goals (15 out of 63) direct from free kicks while Ronaldo's proportion is "just" 11% (six from 54) but it is partly due to his versatility. Six of this artist's 27 this season have come from headers.
The unstoppable nature of Wednesday's strike had some asking whether being awarded a free kick is "almost as good as a penalty" in modern football. Conversion rate statistics suggest that to be fanciful but free kicks are certainly more important than ever, responsible for an increasing proportion of goals due to footballers' greater athleticism and therefore the lesser space available for scoring to arise in open play.
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And nobody takes them like Ronaldo. "Every time I had the ball at my feet as a boy I tried to invent new dribbles, new moves," he recalled. "I always looked to have my own identity in football. That was my dream." He has applied this as much to free kicks as much as stepovers. "The secret? I will not reveal it. I can only state that the success or failure at the moment of taking the free kick is directly related to the position of the body, the way one runs towards the ball and the way one positions one's feet," he has said, and no single factor is key to his method. One, however, is unique. When Ronaldo places the ball, rather than teeing it up like most free kick takers, he pushes it into the ground so when he plants his standing foot next to the ball it pops up, giving the shot something of the quality of a volley. Perhaps this is why he imparts such dip.
Other things are important. Rehearsal and routine underpin his free kicks like Jonny Wilkinson penalties. After placing the ball Ronaldo has a ritual of puffing out his chest, facing goal and standing, statue-like. This is him focusing. "I only think about which side of the net I'm going to aim for. I look at the net and say to myself 'Take the kick, Ronaldo', then I shoot." His body posture at the moment of striking the ball is as distinctive as Beckham's: head right over the ball, arms out for balance, body curved like the letter C. Where most players use their instep, Ronaldo strikes using the tops of his toes and hits right through the line rather than around the ball. He seeks to hit it in a precise spot (some have suggested the ball's valve, though Ferguson has scoffed at this). All in all, the method could not be more honed than if he were running up and kicking a particular petal off a buttercup.
When Ronaldo is next at Carrington, after returning from the international break, he'll be back in the practice-makes-perfect routine. "He can do whatever he wants as a footballer. There are some things he does with the ball that make me touch my head and wonder how he did it." That's not some awestruck journeyman talking, but Luis Figo.
Will Ronaldo hit the jackpot?
CRISTIANO RONALDO is in line for a pay rise that will make him the highest paid footballer in the British game.
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His current contract, worth around £90,000 per week, expires in 2012, and with extension talks poised to start soon, United are likely to increase his earnings to more than the £131,000 received by Chelsea's John Terry.
United, who have a strict wage structure, will not want Ronaldo to be paid more than their top earners, Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand, whose contracts net them in the region of £100,000 per week - so a deal is likely to be struck where Ronaldo would receive a similar amount but United recognise that he has a marketability in the world game matched only, perhaps, by Ronaldinho and David Beckham.
Analysts expect Ronaldo to become football's most commercially precious commodity within the next two or three years and his popularity is highest in Asia, the area United perceive to be key to expanding their brand. A deal on Ronaldo's image rights could be worth at least another £35,000 per week - United did the same with Beckham.
Under last week's Andy Webster ruling, which means players under 28 are entitled to buy out of their contract once it has two years remaining, Ronaldo would be able to leave Old Trafford in 2010, hence the reason for the impending talks.
Brian Glanville's best
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Didi Master of the foglia secca (falling leaf) free kick, that would drift in, as against Peru to secure Brazil's qualification for the 1958 World Cup
Garrincha One of his fierce efforts in the 1962 World Cup for Brazil against England bounced off the chest of keeper Ron Springett, for Vava to score
Brian Talbot Aimed for the top corner. Among his best was the one that gave Arsenal a 1-0 win against Panathinaikos in the Uefa Cup in 1981
Rivelino Scored with one of his fulminating free kicks in Brazil's opening World Cup game in Guadalajara in 1970, against the Czechs
Ronald Koeman Most controversial was the Dutchman's crucial goal against England in a World Cup qualifier in 1993, when he should have earlier been sent off
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Roberto Carlos Glenn Hoddle said of the unbelievable goal the Brazilian scored against France in 1997, 'I doubt we will see a better free kick'
David Beckham Who can forget the free kick that earned England a crucial draw against Greece in 2001?
And Ronnie's not just a dead ball specialist
Premier League goals 07/08
Ronaldo Man Utd 19, Adebayor Arsenal 16, Benjani Portsmouth 12, Torres Liverpool 11, Santa Cruz B'burn 11
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Shots on target
Ronaldo Man Utd 47, Tevez Man Utd 31, Rooney Man Utd 29, Gerrard Liverpool 28, Torres Liverpool 27
Dribbles
Ronaldo Man Utd 108, Bentley Blackburn 101, N'Zogbia Newcastle 99, Young Villa 97, Torres Liverpool 93,
Statistics correct to February 1 2008