You are now De greatest... but he won't gloat yet

Posted Friday, February 15, 2013 by The Sun

DAVID DE GEA is refusing to gloat at his snipers until Manchester United’s Champions League mission is complete.

The keeper, 22, was hailed as a hero on Wednesday after his super saves earned a 1-1 Champions League draw at Real Madrid.

But instead of turning on his critics, the Spaniard paid tribute to his team-mates for the first-leg result which gives United a great chance of progressing to the quarter-finals.

De Gea said: “I had played at the Bernabeu a few times before and it’s a very big stadium with so many people.

“But when you are down there on the pitch, you forget everything in the end.

“The party is not over, though. We are talking about Real Madrid, one of the world’s best. They still have to come to us.

“But it was a good result for us and one we deserved.

“Real came out strongly and threw everything at us. They gave us a bad time but the team knew how to react and defended well.

“In the end we had a bit more control of the ball, had chances and played a great game. We would have taken this result at the start.”

As for former United star Cristiano Ronaldo’s towering header that cancelled out Danny Welbeck’s opener, De Gea admitted it was simply too good for him.

He added: “It was a great goal and I couldn’t get there.

“But we knew it was going to be difficult, particularly on the break, as they have players who are so quick.”

De Gea has suffered more than his fair share of criticism since joining in a £17.8million move from Atletico Madrid 21 months ago, Even United boss Alex Ferguson likened his stopper’s development to a toddler learning how to walk.

But in Madrid on Wednesday, De Gea stood tall on the biggest stage of all.

And his team-mates were quick to applaud him.

United legend Ryan Giggs said: “David is a top goalkeeper. His shot-stopping is second to none.”

And fellow midfielder Michael Carrick said: “David was under a even bigger spotlight than normal what with coming back home. But his saves kept us in the game.”

Defender Phil Jones added: “He’s a terrific goalkeeper and has done a terrific job. He deserves every credit he gets.”

Yet the biggest compliment came from the man who knows him best — United’s goalkeeping coach Eric Steele who said simply: “He will become a big keeper for the biggest club of them all.”

Steele believes De Gea will fill the giant boots of former United No 1 Edwin van der Sar, who retired in May 2011.

Steele said: “If you play for Manchester United and you’re following a legend — along with being young and arriving from another country — it is difficult.

“But David knows the faith that is going to be shown in him by myself, the manager, the coaching staff and the rest of the players. They’re the first to recognise when he has played well.

“There are some things he has to learn but he has the backing of people at the club and, so long as he has that, he will continue to develop and become the big goalkeeper for the biggest club.

“One of his great strengths is calmness. We teach him that the calmest man on the field has to be the keeper.

“And the one thing he has got is a fantastic inner strength. Any criticism literally goes off that quiff he has — in Spanish they call it ‘cresta cabeza’ — and over his head, which is great.

“He’s able to say ‘Right, fine’. If he is hurt, he doesn’t show it.”

Steele admitted Fergie saw something in De Gea when he was a teenage sensation at Atletico.

United had passed up on Joe Hart and Petr Cech in the past and they did not want to make the same error again.

He added: “The manager missed out on Cech when he was younger and didn’t want to do that again.

“There weren’t too many that slipped through. Joe Hart was the other one.”

UNITED’S run in Europe and six new sponsorship deals have put the club on course for a bumper financial season.

For the three-month period ending December 2012, the club’s commercial revenues rose 29 per cent compared to the same period in 2011.