Four years on, the Portuguese is on the verge of claiming Beckham's place as the darling of East Asia, reported The Times.

At Seoul's Shilla Hotel, where the team stayed for their friendly against FC Seoul last Friday, a hundred or so Koreans, nearly all female, loitered in the hope of seeing United's players.

But there was only one person the throng really hankered for - Ronaldo, with his backward baseball cap and diamond earrings.

In Tokyo, where United drew 2-2 with the Urawa Red Diamonds last Tuesday, there were similar scenes.

In Japan, 56,000 fans packed the Saitama stadium.

In Korea, where the estimate is that 75 per cent support the Red Devils, Ronaldo did not disappoint.

Scoring one goal, making two, he did enough to win Man-of-the-Match honours by half-time and spent the second 45 minutes on the bench as United won 4-0.

With the weight of the Nike campaign already behind him, he is well placed to turn himself into a brand.

For Alex Ferguson, this is his fifth Asian tour and experience helps United understand better than any other club how to do these things.

There have been a range of activities designed to show United's commitment to this part of the world is sincere. There have been visits to orphanages, signing sessions for children, coaching clinics and the launch of Japanese, Korean and Chinese language versions of United's website.

Chelsea have the eyes of the world upon them in Hollywood, but United are happy to let the Blues chase the greenback.

For nobody has yet found a way to turn significant profits from soccer in the US.

With around 40 million fans in Asia, 750,000 Koreans signing up for a club credit card within 16 months of being launched, and a casino in Macau paying about £1 million (S$3 million) for Ronaldo & Co to appear in the territory's 16,000-seat stadium today against FC Shenzhen, United know where the accessible currency is.

Seoul sold out in six hours and tickets hit the black market at US$400 (S$605) apiece.

Ronaldo told a breathless local media: 'The atmosphere was brilliant. I hope to play here again next year.'

But he is not just a marketing dream. He belted home 23 goals last season as United ended their four-year title drought last term, and scooped every individual English honour.

'I try to improve every season,' he said, warning the rest of United's rivals.