Former Brazil star, Ronaldo de Lima has courted courted controversy by naming Argentina superstar, Lionel Messi as the undisputed “number one” in modern football while excluding Portugal captain, Cristiano Ronaldo in his top five list of stars.
The list of the world’s top five football stars, according to Ronaldo, are Mohamed Salah, Eden Hazard, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.
Ronaldo, who is a two-time World Cup winner has never shied away from the fact that he considers a mercurial Argentine on the books at Camp Nou to be one of the finest to have ever played the game but his decision to leave out Cristiano in a top five selection will no doubt raise more than a few eyebrows.
“Messi, of course, he is number one, he is a talent that means it will take 20 or 30 years to see something similar,” Ronaldo told AS when quizzed about his choice of best footballer on the planet.
“I also like Salah, Hazard, Neymar, I love watching him play, of course Mbappe,” he added.
PSG striker Mbappe has been likened to Ronaldo, and the ex-Inter and Real Madrid frontman can see why the France international has sparked such talk.
“Many people say that he (Mbappe) looks like me.
“He has a lot of speed, he finishes well, he has great movement, he shoots really well with both feet, he has an incredible stride.
“We have similar attributes, but I never liked the comparisons, especially between players of different generations, because the situations are different,” Ronaldo explained.
While talking up the qualities of a star turn in France, and recognising the efforts of Liverpool forward Salah in England, Ronaldo – who now owns a majority stake in Real Valladolid – considers La Liga to be the best league in the world.
“It is not clear that the Premier League is better than our league,” he said.
“Perhaps in television income the clubs receive more, but the best players are in Spain, or at least, most of them,” he concluded.
La Liga is currently readying itself for a return amid the coronavirus pandemic, with competitive football set to be added to the sporting calendar once more from June 11.
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