Dúbravka: Ronaldo approached me first. I didn’t want to look like a fan, but he was the one I had the longest conversations with

From Liberec to Manchester United. This is the fairytale story of Martin Dúbravka. He arrived at Old Trafford last week and was caught off guard not only by the paparazzi but also by the back exits. He was positively surprised by Cristiano Ronaldo, who was the first to welcome him.

the 33-year-old goalkeeper has been Newcastle’s number one in recent seasons and has been putting in very good performances, only things started to happen after taking over from the new owners.

England’s national goalkeeper Nick Pope came to Newcastle and the Slovakian goalkeeper lost his place. So he looked for a way out and the opportunity arose for him to be an experienced number two to Manchester United’s David De Gea.

“Manchester United have an incredible staff around them. It was exhausting but I’m glad it all came to fruition. I had the ambition to stay in the Isles, it was a huge challenge. When United showed interest in me, the ‘man’ in me came to life,” Dúbravka told Slovakian website sport.sk.

In one of the biggest clubs in England, and indeed the world, he has to get used to a lot of attention right away.

“I had to leave the hotel through the back exit. Actually, through the area where you go to throw the garbage into the dumpsters. When nothing was official, there were paparazzi everywhere. Maybe I still needed to get my kicks out of the car. I ran out of the black van and two seconds later they were pulling me back in because suddenly there was a lot of cameras. On the other hand, the professionalism, the service to the players, it’s something unreal,” says the Slovak goalkeeper.

There are several stars in the team, the biggest one is of course the Portuguese phenomenon Cristiano Ronaldo. You probably wouldn’t expect him to welcome a new teammate so warmly, but Dúbravka has lived the childhood dream of all young footballers.

“I had the longest conversation with him on the first day. We talked before training and afterwards in the gym. He asked about my family, where I live and other normal things. And especially he started talking first!” Dúbravka was very excited about Ronaldo.

“I didn’t want to look like a fan and go to him right away, but it was very pleasant to talk to him about anything,” he adds about the best goal scorer in football history.

Now he has to wait and see what happens next. He is the clear number two behind the Spanish goalkeeper in the hierarchy, but no one is saying that can’t change by the end of the season.

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