RUUD VS. RONALDO

The following fairly bland comments by Scolari have been hyped up as "Ruud's a cheat" in the Sun:

Portugal fear Ruud Van Nistelrooy will lead a Dutch dirty tricks campaign tonight. The hosts go into their Euro 2004 semi accusing the Manchester United strike ace of apparent cheating.

Portugal boss Big Phil Scolari said: "Sometimes he gets an advantage by starting offside at free-kicks and during play. The referee has to be careful."

A Portugal insider said: "They won't say anything publicly but they are also concerned there have been several incidents during the tournament where Van Nistelrooy appears to have gone to ground too easily."

Meanwhile in the Telegraph:

The whitewashed church of Santo Antonio is still the most famous landmark in the modest district to which it gives its name in the north of Madeira's capital city, Funchal. But when the regulars in the small bar opposite the church on the Camino do Ribeirinho settle down to watch Portugal play Holland tonight, the patron saint, Anthony, will find himself second-best to a new local hero.

Instead, all eyes in Santo Antonio will be on a teenager who grew up in a tiny house in the centre of their community and tonight carries the hopes of Portugal in Euro 2004 on his broad shoulders. At 19, it would be too simple to say that Cristiano Ronaldo has come a long way. He has inherited David Beckham's No 7 shirt and right-wing spot at Manchester United and supplanted Luis Figo as the most exciting attacker in the Portugal side.

All of which makes his rapid ascent from a poor background in Madeira more remarkable. Cristiano was the youngest of four children but only his father, Jose Dinis, 50, and sister Elma, 30, still live on the island. His parents split up about 10 years ago and while they are still on good terms, Cristiano's mother, Maria Dolores, his brother Hugo, 29, and second sister Liliana, 26, live with him in Manchester.

The family grew up in a tiny house tucked away on one of the many hills that rise behind the expensive hotels on the Funchal seafront. Jose, who now works for the Santo Antonio local authority, was then a kit-man at Andorinha, the football club where Cristiano's career began at the age of five. Now Jose lives in a big house, with a view of the bay, in the affluent district of Livramento. It was bought for him by his son.

Jose talks by telephone to Cristiano almost every day and pictures of his son in United kit adorn the walls of his living room. His son's profile in Portugal is huge. He advertises a bank and has agreed to be the public face of Madeira at European Union trade fairs.

Jose has watched his son play at Old Trafford but has no plans to move to Manchester. He can barely watch his son play on television because he becomes so nervous. When Cristiano took his penalty in the shoot-out with England, Jose admitted that he looked away from the television. "I just waited for the crowd to react," he said, "the whole room shouted: `Goal.' "

Last Christmas Ferguson gave Ronaldo two weeks off to visit his family in Madeira, although he will be lucky to get any rest this summer after being selected to represent Portugal's under-20s at the Olympic Games. In the meantime, his father has become the closest the island has to a celebrity resident. Cars toot their horns in recognition as they pass him in the street.

"At United, Cristiano's best friend is Eric Djemba-Djemba," Jose said. "He picks him up for training and drives him around. I've met Ferguson and spoken to him through the Brazilian translator at the club. Ferguson is an exceptional person. My son has a second father in Manchester who looks after him."

By the time Cristiano reached nine, the island's two biggest clubs, Nacional and Maritimo, wanted to sign him. Andorinha's president, Rui Santos, had little say in the decision. The boy's godfather, Fernao Sousa, had a connection with Nacional and Maria Dolores insisted that her son play there or give up football.

In return, Andorinha received two sets of kit for their youngest teams. Santos was philosophical about the loss of his star player. "Nacional just had better resources to develop him as a player and allow him to make that step further," he said.

In the black-and-white stripes of Nacional, Cristiano's reputation as Madeira's best young footballer grew and by the time he was 11, Sporting, one of Portugal's three biggest clubs, offered to take him to their academy. With financial problems, Nacional were in no position to refuse: the price this time was £350, two sets of kit and the waiving of a few small debts.

It was then that life became difficult. At 11, Cristiano was a year younger than the other boys at the academy and was picked on for his Madeira accent. Homesick, he became a "rebel", Santos said. In one dispute at school he threw a chair at a teacher for a perceived slur on his Madeira heritage.

Santos said: "It got to the stage where it was so bad that Sporting were thinking of throwing him out, so it was decided he and his mother should move into an apartment in Lisbon. There was a time during that period when he came back to Madeira for a holiday and didn't want to go back to Lisbon. His godfather had to persuade him.

"By the time he was 16 he had settled down but it was only because of his mother that he stayed at Sporting. I don't think he would have been the footballer he has become if she hadn't gone out to live with him. He loves her very much."