Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand has revealed that Cristiano Ronaldo was convinced Diogo Dalot would come good at Old Trafford due to his work ethic.

Dalot joined United from Porto for £19m in June 2018, but largely struggled to pin down a place in the starting lineup for his first few seasons at the club. Following a successful loan stint at Serie A giants AC Milan however, Dalot’s importance to the Red Devils grew and he has firmly cemented himself as a key part of Erik ten Hag’s plans.

The full-back was once again in fine form for United at the weekend, putting in a player of the match performance in a crucial 2-1 win over Aston Villa in the Premier League.

Speaking about Dalot’s improvements in recent seasons on podcast Five, Ferdinand revealed that ex-United star Ronaldo believed in his compatriot’s ability to succeed at the club since day one.

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“Dalot needs a special mention,” Ferdinand said while discussing Sunday’s win. “He’s someone I doubted early, I spoke to Cristiano and said ‘is he really going to be good?’, and he said ‘Rio he works, he works hard, he’ll make himself better, he’ll improve’. He’s obviously seen that behind the scenes.”

Ferdinand also discussed how Darren Fletcher, ex-midfielder and current United technical director, has backed Dalot.

“I spoke to Darren Fletcher, I saw him at the training ground the other day, I said he’s really impressed me, he was saying ‘listen, he’s a worker, he is going to make himself the player he needs to be’,” Ferdinand added.

“I still think defensively he needs to work a little bit, but yesterday [Sunday] he was very good, and with the ball for that cross, if we have players running onto those crosses we will score more goals.”