Gary Neville has lifted the lid on why former teammate Cristiano Ronaldo was never named permanent captain at Old Trafford.
Ronaldo spent six years at Manchester United, between 2003 and 2009, before sealing a big-money move to Real Madrid, which was a world-record transfer fee at the time.
Even though Ronaldo established himself as a global superstar during his United career, he was never handed the opportunity to be made permanent club captain, with Neville revealing that the reason for that was because Wayne Rooney, who would later become United captain, would have "kicked off" about it.
"I remember going to see Sir Alex one pre-season, I think during my third season as captain, and saying I didn't feel worthy of keeping the captaincy because the team had shifted onto a level I couldn't compete at," Neville told Sky Sports.
"It was obvious then, we had an amazing team - Ronaldo, Rooney, [Carlos] Tevez, [Ryan] Giggs, [Paul] Scholes, [Michael] Carrick, [Rio] Ferdinand, [Nemanja] Vidic, [Patrice] Evra, [Edwin] Van der Sar, great players and great personalities. Sir Alex said, 'you'll keep that armband, son'.
"He said me and Giggs would rotate the captaincy because if he gave it to Ronaldo, Rooney would kick off, if he gave it to Vidic, Ferdinand wouldn't be happy, so we kept it for three or four years purely for the camaraderie in the dressing room.
"We were the policeman, the old statesmen in the dressing room that would see the example and Sir Alex wanted to make sure the team came first, despite me feeling unworthy of the captaincy at that stage."
During his six-year stay at Old Trafford, Ronaldo helped the club win three Premier League titles, two League Cups, one Champions League, one FA Cup, one Community Shield and the FIFA Club World Cup. He captained the team once against Bolton in 2008 when he scored twice.
