Stephen Hendry was hitting the links with Sir Alex Ferguson when he found out that Cristiano Ronaldo had signed for Manchester United.

However, the seven-time snooker world champion actually mistook the Portuguese great, who celebrates his 40th birthday on Wednesday, for Brazilian legend Ronaldo Nazario. Hendry explained the mix-up as he spoke to former United goalkeeper Ben Foster.

"I played golf with him [Ferguson] once, and he was on the phone all the time," Hendry began on the Snooker Club podcast. "It was at Gleneagles and he was on the phone, and there was a guy who I knew asked me to play - because he didn't play golf but he knew Alex Ferguson.

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"He said, 'Can you play with him?'. I said, 'Yeah, yeah'. So he's on the phone, this guy said, 'What you doing?'. He said, 'I'm doing a deal'. He says, 'We're signing Ronaldo'. And I'm like, 'Oh my God, Man United are signing Ronaldo' - Brazilian Ronaldo. I said, 'Wow, what a signing'. Anyway, it turned out in the end it was Cristiano Ronaldo.

"I was texting all my mates who are Man United fans saying, 'You'll never guess what, Man United are signing Ronaldo'." CR7 impressed Ferguson during a pre-season friendly in 2003, in which Sporting CP beat United 3-1. Just six days later, at the age of 17, the youngster signed for the Red Devils - and the rest is history.

While Hendry may have been excited at the prospect of signing Ronaldo Nazario instead at the time, given the Brazilian's remarkable performances and goal tallies with the likes of PSV, Barcelona, PSV and Madrid, United arguably signed a bigger footballing titan in Cristiano.

The winger-turned-striker scored 118 goals in 292 appearances for United between 2003 and 2009, lifting three Premier League titles, two League Cups, an FA Cup and a Champions League before transferring to Real Madrid in an £80million move. He added two La Ligas and four Champions Leagues to his trophy cabinet with Los Blancos before making the move to Juventus in 2018.

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He spent three years in the Serie A before returning to United for one last dance in 2021, adding another 27 goals in 54 games to his club record before moving on to Saudi Pro League outfit Al-Nassr in 2023. Despite turning 40 on Wednesday, Ronaldo has showed no signs of slowing down any time soon.

In the 2024/25 season, the five-time Ballon d'Or winner has scored 15 goals in 17 games - and despite his contract being set to expire at the end of the campaign, Ronaldo has insisted that he wants to keep enjoying the beautiful game as long as he can.

The iconic R9, meanwhile, spent five years with Real between 2002 and 2007 before moving on to AC Milan and subsequently Corinthians. And while the prolific striker is considered to be one of the greatest of all time, his career was plagued with injuries - including three patellar ruptures and a tear, as well as a broken tibia and other knee problems.