MANCHESTER: Matheus Cunha hopes he can bring Wayne Rooney’s spirit back to Manchester United.

The £62.5 million Brazilian signing was a revelation for the Red Devils’ 2008 Champions League-winning squad.

At that time, he was only nine years old, fascinated to make Man United his favorite club.

Every week he watches matches involving Man United and goes out to play at his own version of ‘Old Trafford’.

Among the stars in Alex Ferguson’s squad at that time, the one he was most interested in was England captain Wayne Rooney.

Cunha, 26, sees the qualities of the club’s top scorer with 253 goals as very close to his own and he hopes to bring that glory back to the current United squad.

The former Wolves and Atletico Madrid striker said: “I remember the whole squad when I first saw it.

“I like Rooney up front. He’s someone who has the same thing in my game, because I always give my all too.

“He wears the number 10, everyone loves his skills but he always gives more than that.

“He will make tackles to get the ball, this kind of energy in him is the best example.”

Even though 17 years have passed, Cunha can still name every player who helped United beat Chelsea 6-5 on penalties in Moscow after the Champions League final ended 1-1 after extra time.

“Of course I can name players. Cristiano Ronaldo – everyone knows, Ryan Giggs too.

“I can picture the team now – starting with Edwin van der Sar in goal, Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic in defence. Paul Scholes, Michael Carrick.

“That team had a big impact on me as a teenager,” Cunha said.

Cunha’s performances at Molineux and his 17 goals for Wolves last season have made him one of the most sought-after players in this transfer window.

United may not be the first choice for some players after a disappointing season, especially without European competition next season when they finished the campaign in 15th place on 42 points.

But for Cunha, the opportunity to wear a United jersey is something quite special for him and hard to pass up.

“Maybe other people don’t understand my decision. But when you cultivate the dream since childhood to play here, it’s easy to make that decision.

“It’s hard for me to explain, but there’s no other like United. My decision is based on what this club is capable of,” he said.

RIYADH: Cristiano Ronaldo has reportedly received a hefty offer from a Brazilian club ahead of the Club World Cup.

The Manchester United legend has a mega 164 million pound a year contract with Saudi Pro League club Al-Nassr, which expires this summer.

Ronaldo, 40, is now in his third season in Saudi Arabia but has yet to win a league trophy in the Middle Eastern country.

On the other hand, Al-Ittihad – lined up by Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kante and Fabinho – were superior and lifted the league trophy last week.

Ronaldo’s contract extension was also suspended after Al-Nassr failed to qualify for next season’s Asian Champions League.

Now the five-time Ballon d’Or winner has a final chance to finish his career with the glory of a trophy.

According to Spanish media reports, Ronaldo was contacted by a Brazilian club that will compete in the Club World Cup this summer.

Although it was not stated which clubs, only Palmeiras, Flamengo, Fluminense and Botafogo from Brazil will compete next month.

If the club in question is Palmeiras, he will find Ronaldo with his old enemy, Lionel Messi, who represents Inter Miami.

Palmeiras is in the same group as Inter Miami, Porto and Egyptian club Al Ahly.

The Club World Cup is no stranger to Ronaldo, who has won the trophy four times throughout his career.

The first time he won it was with Man United in 2008 when the English Premier League club beat LDU Quito 1-0 thanks to Wayne Rooney’s goal.

The Portuguese striker added three more tournament trophies to his collection with Real Madrid, scoring a hat-trick in the 2016 final to beat Kashima Antlers 4-2.

The 2025 Club World Cup will take place in the United States from June 15 to July 13.

The English Premier League is represented by Chelsea and Manchester City, while Real Madrid and Bayern Munich are among the main European teams in the tournament.

MANCHESTER: Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has called on the club’s supporters to consider the match against Aston Villa at the Etihad Stadium, early Wednesday morning, as the final match in the mission to book a spot in next season’s Champions League.

City are currently fourth in the Premier League with 58 points after 33 matches – one point ahead of Villa who are in seventh place.

The top five teams will qualify for the main European competition next season.

“It’s a final and we need our fans. I’m sure they want to see City in the Champions League next season,” Guardiola told a news conference.

“Hopefully they will support us from the first minute. Don’t wait. Sometimes we are slow to warm up, sometimes the performance doesn’t work out.

“But right now, we really need them, we really need them to cheer, give us energy and make the stadium buzz. This is like a final for us.”

Guardiola also warned that Aston Villa are not easy opponents, not to mention the team beat City 2-1 in the last meeting in December.

In fact, he admired the performance of the Midlands club who nearly eliminated Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in the Champions League quarter-finals recently.

MANCHESTER: Cameroon goalkeeper Andre Onana will return to Manchester United’s goal in the Europa League quarter-final second leg against Lyon despite making two errors in the first leg, Red Devils manager Ruben Amorim said today.

Lyon had previously managed to tie the game 2-2 thanks to two mistakes by Onana, which led to him being sidelined in the Premier League match against Newcastle United last weekend, which saw Altay Bayindir substituted and United lose 1-4.

The incident came a day after Lyon midfielder Nemanja Matic described Onana as “among the worst goalkeepers” in the club’s history.

However, Amorim still defended his men and placed his trust in Onana.

“Onana will play tomorrow,” said Amorim in a press conference ahead of the match at Old Trafford, early Friday morning.

In another development, young Dutch striker Joshua Zirkzee has been confirmed to be out of action this season after suffering a hamstring injury during a match at St James’ Park.

“Joshua has to forget the rest of this season. Our focus now is to prepare him for next season,” said Amorim.

“It’s a huge blow because he’s showing improvement in all aspects of his game. It’s not easy for any player to have that kind of momentum stopped.”

NEWCASTLE, England: Manchester United coach Ruben Amorim insisted he understood the criticism aimed at him and his team after another Premier League (EPL) defeat at Newcastle United early this morning, but claimed losing a game was worse than any personal curse.

Amorim’s team lost for the 14th time in the league this season – matching the number of defeats they suffered throughout the 2023-24 campaign.

United showed some impressive moves at St James’ Park but two goals from Harvey Barnes, capitalising on a number of defensive errors, left Amorim’s side stranded in 14th place in the table with six games remaining.

“I understand (the criticism) but I don’t care,” said Amorim.

“There’s nothing worse than losing a game. They can say whatever they want. I don’t want to defend myself or anything like that. If you look at where we are in the table, it says it all.

“When we were penalised for the second goal at the start of the second half, we started to get frustrated and we need to act better in moments like this, we need to deal with it.

“We need to improve a lot of things and our position is a reflection of our performance this season.”

On the verge of the worst EPL points tally in history, Amorim made five changes to the starting line-up, with the Europa League quarter-final second leg against Olympique Lyonnais taking centre stage early this Friday morning.

The change that stole the spotlight was when first-choice goalkeeper Andre Onana was left out of the squad, with Altay Bayindir making his EPL debut.

The Turkiye international struggled, however, with his mistake gifting Newcastle their fourth goal.

“Even if we put in a different starting line-up, we don’t know the outcome,” said Amorim. “But we have to make a choice, we played three days ago.

“We will analyse the game, but we need to focus on the next one, we can’t change this one, the next one is our big strength, so let’s focus on the next one this Thursday to perform better and win the match.”