Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed how Wayne Rooney led the move to make peace with Cristiano Ronaldo after their World Cup blow-up last year.

He told an audience in Glasgow: "Wayne phoned me on the day of the World Cup final and said he had a great idea. He suggested he could do a TV interview with Ronaldo and they could show everything was fine. I thought it would look stage-managed and said no.

"Instead David Gill and I flew to Portugal to meet Ronaldo. We told him we'd had a similar experience with David Beckham [after France 98]. Ronaldo was concerned but not afraid [about coming back]. We said we'd put extra security on his house. He said he'd try it and see how it went. It's been no bother."