Who are the greatest players in Manchester United’s history? The Athletic gave Andy Mitten the task of compiling his top 25, and we are counting them down this summer, in reverse order.He knows not everyone will agree, but he is taking into account a wide range of factors. For the other players, scroll to the bottom of this article.Cristiano Ronaldo is arguably the greatest footballer ever and he played 346 of his 1,099 club games (and counting) for Manchester United, scoring 145 goals.Ronaldo was the most talented player in a United side that became the best in the world in 2008, before he left a year later for Real Madrid in an £80million ($150m at the time) deal that’s still the club’s most lucrative sale, 17 years on. The Portugal forward, who joined from Sporting CP in 2003 after shining in a pre-season friendly in Lisbon, won nine trophies during his time in England.He became the first United player to win the Ballon d’Or since the triumvirate of George Best, Denis Law and Bobby Charlton in the 1960s. He was crowned FIFA’s World Player of the Year in 2008, UEFA’s Club Footballer of the Year for 2007-08 when he was the top scorer in the Champions League. As the full scale of his talent began to be realised, Ronaldo was the Premier League Player of the Season for 2006-07 and 2007-08, the second of which he was the league’s top scorer with 31 league goals and 42 in total for the club.No other United player has been named as the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year twice. Ronaldo became the first player to win four awards in one season: the writers’ prize, Players’ Player of the Year, Young Player of the Year and Fans’ Player of the Year in 2007.Replacing David Beckham, Ronaldo became a hero, a commercial behemoth that helped the club to further prominence in the global consciousness. He scored goals no other player could — and often in key Champions League games. One 2009 stunner in Porto after a 2-2 draw in the Old Trafford leg was so far from goal that team-mates questioned why he was shooting. It went in, United went through.