Cristiano Ronaldo. Matt Oldfield

– perhaps the 2004 final would be dubbed the ‘Ronaldo final’. It quickly became clear that, for all Millwall’s efforts, there was a gulf in class between the two sides, yet United struggled to make it count. It was Ronaldo himself who eventually opened the scoring just before half-time, heading home from Gary Neville’s cross. Ruud van Nistelrooy grabbed the other two goals – one from the penalty spot – but it was the Portuguese winger who was at the heart of all of United’s best moves. Incredibly, Cristiano was not awarded the man of the match trophy, as Sven-Goran Eriksson chose van Nistelrooy for that honour. The Dutchman, like everyone else, could scarcely believe that Ronaldo had not been rewarded for his performance. The critics suggested that it summed up Eriksson’s powers of judgement.

      All the talk after the game centred around Ronaldo. In front of millions of viewers worldwide, he had delivered a match-winning display, worthy of gracing any game. Ferguson was delighted, ‘Ronaldo was outstanding. We need to look after him in the right way because he is going to be an outstanding footballer.’ For Ferguson, it was also a relief that one of his young signings had played so spectacularly; Sir Alex had received plenty of criticism for the fact that a couple of his other signings had flopped in the fast pace of English football.

      Gary Neville echoed his manager’s sentiments, ‘To come with the price tag on his head and at his age, he has been outstanding for us this season.’ His family watched the match with immense pride and his father, Dinis, was overjoyed with Cristiano’s achievements. One of Madeira’s home grown youngsters had gone to England and won the FA Cup. Word soon spread around the island as Ronaldo’s relatives celebrated his success.

      As he stepped up to receive his medal, it was a tremendously proud moment. The whole squad wore shirts with ‘Davis 32’ on the back in memory of Jimmy Davis, the United youngster who had died tragically in a car accident. It was a moving act and made the success more special because it was dedicated to Davis. The idea for the shirts came from Roy Keane, while Gary Neville spoke for everyone at the club when he said, ‘We still think about him [Davis] and we mention him regularly. Hopefully, what we did today will make Jimmy’s parents smile for a moment.’

      The Premiership had been the main aim, but the United players were visibly delighted to lift the FA Cup. Ronaldo basked in the glory of his starring role and savoured the compliments of his manager, his team-mates and the pundits, although Alan Hansen still maintained that he would rather play against Ronaldo than in the same team as him. It was impossible not to think about Ronaldo’s promising future. The only concern was that the positive words might go to his head. As James Lawton observed in the Independent, Cristiano had to be careful not to listen too carefully to the praise of others. Lawton felt that there was still plenty of vanity in the winger’s game and that he ought to look more closely at the manner in which Ryan Giggs has acted throughout his lengthy career at Old Trafford. The fact that Ronaldo had dazzled Millwall, not AC Milan or Real Madrid, was a valid point and was a warning against getting carried away by the hype.

      It had been a season full of ups and downs for Cristiano, but he had ended it on a high. He had gained experience and maturity in abundance and would look to continue his improvements when the new campaign began. In the meantime, he was focusing on Euro 2004.