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Ronaldo voted Premier League's greatest ever player

Cristiano Ronaldo spent just six years in English football, but as he celebrates his 30th birthday on Thursday the former Manchester United star has been voted as the greatest player to have graced the Premier League.

A survey conducted by the Press Association showed Ronaldo was the people's choice, finishing ahead of Thierry Henry and Ryan Giggs, who joined him on the fantasy podium.

Ronaldo was brought to Old Trafford by Sir Alex Ferguson as a raw 18-year-old in 2003, and departed for Real Madrid in 2009 with three Premier League titles, a Champions League winners' medal and an FA Cup, and as the reigning FIFA world player of the year.

The Portuguese forward's extraordinary success has continued unabated in Spain, following what was at the time a record £80 million transfer. Ronaldo has plundered goals and broken records at a breathtaking rate and developed a keen rivalry with Barcelona's Lionel Messi, the pair now firmly established as the leading two players of their era.

Ronaldo's talent was fine-tuned at United, where he scored 118 goals in 292 appearances, fully justifying his early billing as 'the new George Best'.

In an online poll of 1,000 members of the public, the choice offered was between Ronaldo, Henry, Giggs and fellow luminaries Eric Cantona, Gianfranco Zola, Dennis Bergkamp, Steven Gerrard, Alan Shearer, Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira.

Marginally over a quarter of those surveyed chose an 11th option, specified as 'other/don't know'.

Ronaldo snared 177 of the 747 votes cast for one of the chosen star names, a 24% share once the fence-sitters and contrarians are removed from the calculations.

Next in line was Arsenal favourite Henry, with 18% of support, followed by Ronaldo's former teammate Giggs, the most decorated player in the league, on 13%.

French maverick Cantona, the key on-field figure in establishing the Red Devils as the Premier League's early dominant force, took a 12% share, as did the division's record goalscorer Shearer.

Keane, who sneered at prawn sandwiches and brought both brawn and brain to Ferguson's best teams, might be unimpressed by his two% haul of votes, but he still edged out old Arsenal foe Vieira who took a one% slice.

Regional variations were intriguing, with Henry leading the way in East Anglia, Newcastle favourite Shearer not surprisingly the pick of northeast voters, Giggs and Cantona scooping joint top spot in Wales, and Gerrard the favourite choice in Northern Ireland.

When it came to gender differences, Ronaldo ruled the roost for both men and women.

Shearer found considerably more support with women voters (16%) than with men (9%), while the opposite was true for Henry. The Frenchman was the preferred choice of 20% of men, but just 15% of women.

Cristiano Ronaldo won three Premier League titles with Manchester United © Getty Images

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