Ronaldo ignored Townsend's requests for his shirt after Everton draw

Ronaldo ignored Townsend's requests for his shirt after Everton draw

Andros Townsend has revealed he took him a while to convince Cristiano Ronaldo to give him shirt after Everton held Manchester United to a 1-1 draw Old Trafford on Saturday.

The Portuguese star stormed off the pitch after United dropped points against the Toffees, before Townsend, who pulled out Ronaldo's trademark 'Siuuu' celebration after he scored Everton's equaliser, hurried after him.

The former Spurs and Crystal Palace winger caught up with the 36-year-old, who appeared to ignore him and kept walking towards the tunnel.

TV footage showed Ronaldo uttering a few words as he looked straight ahead, but Townsend said the Portuguese was not addressing him and was speaking to himself instead.

'I made it my goal that I was not leaving Old Trafford without Cristiano Ronaldo’s shirt,' he told talkSPORT Breakfast on Monday.

'You saw after the final whistle, I ran straight to him, I don’t know what he was muttering but it wasn’t English.'

Eventually, however, the 29-year-old persuaded Ronaldo to hand over his shirt.

'He was muttering in Portuguese and I asked him three or four times for his shirt and eventually he gave in and said he would give it to me inside.'

'I had to wait inside the dressing room and thankfully the kit man was able to sort it for me.

'That shirt I am going to keep with me.'

Speaking of his reenacting of Ronaldo's famous celebration, Townsend explained it was not a spur-of-the-moment decision.

'We were discussing it on the coach the day before on the way up to Manchester. The boys were saying, would you do it if you scored?

'I said yeah, but the one thing they said was make sure you are winning or it is late in the game, so Ronaldo doesn’t have a chance to reply.

'I got a bit carried away, almost buckled and fell on my back, I looked up at the clock and it was 65 minutes. I gave the greatest player half an hour to make me look silly and score the winner. Thankfully he didn’t.

'[I went] very early, every ball that went into the box I thought he was going to make me look a complete fool. Thankfully we held out for the point in the end.'

Townsend has hit the ground running since moving to Goodison Park from Palace on a free transfer in the summer, scoring five goals and assisting a further three in nine appearances in all competitions.

The draw left Everton level on 14 points with United and Manchester City, a point adrift of Liverpool and two behind league leaders Chelsea.
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