Cristiano Ronaldo traded his Porsche with Man Utd employee for Pussycat Doll's number | OneFootball

A former masseuse for Cristiano Ronaldo has told a brilliant story about how the Portuguese forward exchanged his Porsche for a celebrity's number.

Rod Thornley worked as a massage therapist at Manchester United for 19 years and also for England for 14 years.

His time at United coincided with Ronaldo’s first stint in the UK, with the goalscorer spending six seasons in Manchester before departing for Real Madrid.

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Ronaldo became an elite player during his first spell at United, scoring 78 league goals for the Red Devils and lifting the Premier League trophy three times, as well as one Champions League.

Ronaldo asked for X-Factor star’s number

And while in England, Ronaldo also had an eye for other stars.

Speaking on the Under the Cosh podcast, Thornley remembers when the five-time Ballon d’Or winner asked for him to get a celebrity’s number.

“The last season he was at the club, the night before the game we were at the Lowry Hotel. He’s having a massage with me,” Thornley explained.

“He’s on my bed and I’m rubbing his legs and the TV is on. The X-Factor is on.

“He says ‘who is this girl?’ It was Dannii Minogue. He asks who is Dannii Minogue and I said the sister of Kylie Minogue.

“He said ‘oh okay, can you get me her number?’ I thought f***ing hell, I’m the masseur for Man United.

“Actually, I am a man of many means and in four or five days I’ve got Dani Minogue’s number in my phone and hand it to him.

“Apparently they went on a couple of dates and whatever happened happened. Nothing came of it in the end.”

Ronaldo exchanges Porsche for a number

But Minogue was not the only celebrity Ronaldo spotted on the TV show.

Thornley went on to say how another singer caught the player's eye a few months later.

But this time, he was not getting her number for free.

“About four or five months later, we are in March or April and he’s leaving for Real Madrid. We all know he’s now got Real Madrid at the end of the season,” he says.

“He now says to me, X-Factor on on Saturday night, ‘who is this girl?’ It was that Kimberley Wyatt from Pussycat Dolls.

“He says ‘can you get her number?’ I said, ‘what’s in this for me?’ I’m dogging away getting f***ing girls numbers for you and I’m getting nothing out of this.

“He said ‘okay, you like my car’, he had a Porsche Carrera convertible. I said yeah and he said ‘when I go to Real Madrid I’ll sell it to you for half price’.

“I said okay, took me about 10 minutes to get her number and passed it on to him. Sure enough, end of the season comes and I say to him ‘remember our deal, are you sticking to it’?

“He says yeah and I gave him £30,000 for a £60,000 car. Next day I sold it for £60,000.

“I literally had it for one night, went to his house, picked it up and put the money in his bank account, sold it the next day. I had a great holiday in the Maldives that summer.”