Former Manchester United player tells story of stealing girl away from Cristiano Ronaldo

A former Manchester United goalkeeper has told the story of 'stealing' Cristiano Ronaldo's girl at a Christmas party after introducing him as a "reserve player".

Luke Steele, who failed to make a first-team appearance for Manchester United during a four-year spell between 2002 and 2006, played alongside Ronaldo for three seasons before joining West Brom.

Years later and former Barnsley, Bristol City and Panathinaikos shot-stopper Steele spoke to YouTube podcast Under The Cosh about his time at Old Trafford.

The 38-year-old also told the story of when he, in his own words, 'nicked' a girl off him on a night out.

Steele said: "I nicked a bird off him [Ronaldo]. It was on that Christmas do actually in the upstairs living room in Manchester. He wasn't at his best but he's playing in the first team so give him some credit.

"I won the Youth Cup and he'd been bought for £13m so it was head-to-head as well.

"Luckily, the girl didn't know too much about football [so] she probably feels she missed out. She'd probably twist the story and say she got with him.

"To be honest, I remember her going between the two during the night and she specifically asked me, 'Who's that Cristiano?' And I just said, 'Uh, he's one of the ressie [reserve] players'.

"But I remember after getting with her - I actually went out with her for a few months properly after that. I remember her really emphasising on the fact that he wasn't a reserve player and he was the main man."

In that chat Under The Cosh, Steele also claimed that two of his former United teammates had a trick to avoid Roy Keane in training, back when the Irishman was club captain.

At the time [05/06 season], Sir Alex Ferguson had three keepers at his disposal: Edwin Van Der Sar, Tim Howard and the aforementioned Steele.

And according to Steele, his two positional rivals were terrified of bumping into Keane at the Carrington training facility.

In that chat Under The Cosh, Steele also claimed that two of his former United teammates had a trick to avoid Roy Keane in training, back when the Irishman was club captain.

At the time [05/06 season], Sir Alex Ferguson had three keepers at his disposal: Edwin Van Der Sar, Tim Howard and the aforementioned Steele.

And according to Steele, his two positional rivals were terrified of bumping into Keane at the Carrington training facility.

"When I was number three, there was me, Tim Howard and van der Sar." he said.

"And Tony Coton, the goalie coach, when we went over to do the games, he said to me one day he said 'have you ever noticed you're always on Roy Keane's side?', And I was like oh not really."

"And he said 'yeah because the other two are s*** scared, so they always choose the other team', van der Sar and Tim Howard."

Steele added: "And it's true, you don't want to be on his side, you'd rather be playing against him because you know you're not going to get a b*******ing from him.

"So there was me, getting b*******ings all over, like every time I played but big grown international, Champions League winners were like that.

"He had that effect on people."