EA Sports raised eyebrows last year by making Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo the player with the highest rating on FIFA 17.Ronaldo was rated 94. Lionel Messi, meanwhile, was only the second-best player on the game with a rating of 93.This was the first version of the hugely popular video game franchise that Messi hadn’t featured on the front cover since FIFA 12 - Borussia Dortmund’s Marco Reus features on the cover of the most-recent version - and some people felt this was EA’s way of getting back at the Barcelona icon.But was it actually an attempt by EA to sweeten up Ronaldo?

The Portuguese forward was named as the cover star for FIFA 18 earlier this week - the first time he’s ever featured on the cover of FIFA - and you just know this wouldn’t have happened if his FIFA 17 rating was lower than Messi’s.

A couple of early trailers for FIFA 18 have been posted on social media over the past few days and as part of his involvement with the new game, Ronaldo took part in a motion capture shoot.

This is to ensure that his character mimics his movements in a realistic manner on the game.

How Ronaldo stunned EA Sports staff during shoot

Goal have interviewed Sam Rivera, the Associate Producer for FIFA, and he revealed something rather remarkable about Ronaldo’s motion capture shoot.

It turns out he was so keen to ensure his movements are as realistic as possible on FIFA 18 that he pushed himself so hard he needed to be told to calm down.

In fact, at one point during the 10-minute session, he slipped over because he was working so hard.

"So with this new engine it was easier to tell that it is Ronaldo just by his run and the way he hits the ball," Rivera was quoted as saying by Goal. "With Ronaldo, you could see that he wanted to do everything to make sure that the real Ronaldo was in the game.

"He was doing everything perfectly with 100 per cent effort. You don’t see that very much in professional players who are doing motion capture because they normally don’t want to get injured. They need to be 100% for their actual job and not to capture stuff for a video game.

"Ronaldo was a very different experience. In the time he was on the field, for the 10 minutes that we were capturing him, he was sweating. We had to even tell him to slow down because when he was turning, he was slipping and we didn’t want Ronaldo to get injured as we would be in trouble with Real Madrid.

"It was a very interesting shoot and we learned a lot from it. Now we can go and capture any player in the future."

Ronaldo's work ethic is incredible

You have to admire Ronaldo.

Even on a motion capture shoot for a video game, he still puts in 100 per cent effort.

It’s this attitude and work ethic that has allowed Ronaldo not only to reach the very top of his profession but to remain there for a decade and counting.