Brazilian football superstar Ronaldo Nazario has snubbed Cristiano Ronaldo by not including him in his list of top five players. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have become the subjects of a heated debate between football fans and sports pundits regarding which of the two players should be named the GOAT, or the greatest of all time. In recent years, famous athletes have voiced their opinions on the issue, with the majority siding with the Argentinian player.
In an interview with AS, the two-time World Cup winner named Cristiano’s nemesis Lionel Messi, as the number one player in football, saying that it would take 20 or 30 years to see a player of that kind again. The Phenomenon then listed other football players that he loves.
The list included Liverpool’s striker Mohamed Salah, Real Madrid’s midfielder Eden Hazard, PSG and Brazil’s star Neymar, as well as French rising star Kylian Mbappe. The latter has drawn comparisons to the Phenomenon; however, the 43-year-old praised his younger colleague and said that one cannot compare the two athletes.
"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. I never liked the comparisons, especially between players of different generations, because the situations are different", Ronaldo Nazario said.
The Phenomenon not only upset Cristiano Ronaldo's fans, but English fans as well by saying that Spain's La Liga and not England's Premier League should be considered the best football tournament in the world. Like Cristiano, Nazario spent years playing for Real Madrid and now owns a majority stake in another Spanish club - Real Valladolid.
"It is not clear that the Premier League is better than our league. Perhaps in television income the clubs receive more, but the best players are in Spain, or at least, most of them", Ronaldo Nazario said.