A former Manchester United star has claimed that his old teammate Anderson could’ve been the world’s best if it wasn’t for a love of takeaway burgers.

Alex Ferguson plucked the teenager from Porto in 2007 and many assumed that he was set for superstardom as an all-round midfield star.

Although the Brazilian was present for four Premier League title wins and also played in the 2008 Champions League final win over Chelsea, his time at Old Trafford was still a failure.

Repeated injury issues and struggles for form plagued Anderson during his time with the Manchester outfit and he made just 118 starts in a near eight-year career with the club.

His former teammate and compatriot Rafael has explained in his new book about why Anderson’s career never quite took off in the first place.

The full-back played alongside Anderson for a number of years but lays the blame on a love of burgers for why his old colleague wasn’t a superstar.

‘We could be on the team coach and pass the services on the motorway and Anderson would jump up impulsively and yell “McDonald’s, McDonald’s”, he told The Sun.

‘The guy was crazy, but I love him. Give him a football and he would just play with freedom and sometimes, if he got a good run of games, he could play as well as any player in the league.

‘He picked up a lot of big injuries and then his problems with eating the way he did started to affect him.’

‘It was no coincidence that his best form came when he had a lot of games because that was when he couldn’t eat so much.

‘I will say something about Anderson — if he had been a professional football player, he could have been the best in the world.’

Rafael went on to say that Anderson’s laid-back attitude didn’t stop at just football as he approached the rest of his life in a ‘relaxed’ manner as well.

A bit surprising given how Ferguson was with discipline and training, but in the off-season, it's hard to manage that. One area that CR7 is held in the highest regard, his lifestyle and how he took care of his body was almost second to none.

Eating burgers won't make you lose your fitness, it's just bread with meat technically. Usain Bolt ate chicken nuggets before to run on his 100 meter at the Olympics in 2012, just avoid the fries at all cost...

Eating burgers won't make you lose your fitness, it's just bread with meat technically

No, it won't. But if you add +1000 calories every 2nd day it's gonna make big difference in long run.