Man Utd Champions League winner who "didn't care" is now unrecognisable
Former Manchester United star Anderson looks almost unrecognisable just four years after announcing his retirement from football.
Anderson joined United from Porto in 2007 and helped the Red Devils win the Premier League and Champions League in his debut campaign. His performances that season also saw him win the prestigious Golden Boy award and he ended up spending seven-and-a-half years at Old Trafford.
In that time, Anderson lifted three more Premier League titles before returning to his native Brazil with Internacional in 2015. And after also spending time at Coritiba and Adana Demirspor, the midfielder called time on his career in 2019 at the age of just 31.
And he appears to be enjoying retirement, having also shaved off his trademark dreadlocks in favour of a much shorter haircut. Despite the four league titles and Champions League trophy he won during his time at United, those who worked with Anderson believe he could have enjoyed an even better career had he not been a "party animal" who "didn't care about anything".
"He could have been the best player in the world at one point, I promise you he could have," former United goalkeeper Ben Foster told the last year. "Everybody would say that he could have been the best in the world at one point.
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"But he just didn't care, he didn't care about anything. Honestly, he didn't care about anything [laughs]. But you put him on a pitch and he was like that. Carlos Tevez was the same sort of thing. Put him on the pitch and oh my god. There has got to be something in being South American, there's got to be something in that."
Ex-United coach Mick Clegg, who spent 11 years at the club under Ferguson, echoed Foster's comments in an interview with the "You could never find a nicer person — he was popular with everyone — but he was a lazy bleeder," Clegg said.
Anderson won four Premier League titles during his time at Old Trafford (Matthew Peters/Manchester United via Getty Images)"He always had his excuses. I used to have a stick and I said to Alex Ferguson very early on, 'If he carries on, I'm going to hit him with my bleeding stick'. Fergie couldn't believe it. 'Don't you dare. He cost me a lot of money. You can't be hitting one of my players, are you mad?'.
"Then, six weeks later, Fergie came to find me. 'Where's that bloody stick?', he said. 'Give me that stick. I want to hit him'. Anderson was more than capable of being an absolute stormer of a player.
"He just needed his head knocking. He didn't keep fit. He chose not to put in the work, so it's hard to have too much sympathy for him. He was a party animal."
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