Mads Timm only made one first-team appearance for Manchester United, but he spent six years at the club and observed enough to give him the material to write a book.
The 31-year-old left United in 2006, a year after being convicted of dangerous driving for his part in a high-speed chase. Timm then played for a few clubs in his native Denmark, before retiring in 2009.
His sole appearance for the United first-team came as a second-half substitute against Maccabi Haifa in the Champions League back in 2002. But despite his limited playing time, his new book appears more interesting than your standard footballer’s autobiography.
Danish forward Mads Timm was touted as a potential Man Utd superstar. He retired from football in 2009, aged 24. pic.twitter.com/MRojqsR3qZ
— ForgottenFootballers (@ForgotAboutThem) May 3, 2016
Timm reveals the dressing down Sir Alex Ferguson gave him for referring to the United manager by his first name, and has also offered some interesting insight into Cristiano Ronaldo’s early days at Old Trafford.
Timm and Ronaldo were born a few months apart, but it sounds as though the Portuguese winger was light-years ahead as a footballer – technically, physically and in terms of mental strength – when he arrived from Sporting Lisbon in 2003.
“Cristiano Ronaldo was the total opposite of me. I was finished in the head and hated the environment when he arrived in Manchester,” Timm writes in his book, Red Devil.
“He was just the opposite; he was moving forward, clear-headed and with an indomitable faith in himself. It was also reflected on the pitch. We performed an internal training match where I was located on the left wing, while he was the right wing for the other team. Every time we met on the field, he wiped me, and I have rarely been so out of breath after a test. He pulled all the air out of me.
“He was quite extraordinary as a footballer, and as a person. Like me, he was bullied when he came to the club. With his hair – which he soon got clipped – and with his almost acrobatic attempt to impress the coaches. He could stand and do 10-15 step overs before he tried to dribble past the opponent.
“Pass now, just pass, dammit,’ shouted Gary Neville and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer constantly to him when we had reserve team matches together.
“The special thing about Cristiano Ronaldo was that he immediately took the fight against hierarchy up. And he won it. He was completely indifferent to the collective. He gave no room for others. It was me, me, me. Cristiano Ronaldo. CR7.
“Look at him: Even today, after all he has achieved, he will almost be annoyed if his colleagues scores instead of playing the ball to him. He’s not the best player I have played with, but he is the most focused person I have ever met. Mentally he reminded me of myself at age 12, and he does really still. I do not think he sees himself from the outside, and I do not think he’s going to sit and laugh at himself. I think that’s why he survived in the professional football world.
“Cristiano Ronaldo was also dying to buy one of my diamond jewellery, but I refused to sell it to him. It had to be enough, he had already taken my dream.”
