The iconic Brazilian striker Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima ignored his namesake Cristiano Ronaldo while choosing his top five football players.
Instead, he considers Barcelona icon Lionel Messi as the greatest player on the world, with Neymar and Eden Hazard behind him in the squad.
The two-time World Cup winner has never stayed away from the notion that on the Camp Nou books he considered the mercurial Argentine as one of the best ever to have played the game.
He echoed that mentality when listing those that catch his attention in the present and it does not come as a shock to see the six-time Ballon d’Or winner Messi top that list.
The ex-Barcelona star believes Messi the undisputed “number one” of modern football, while Mohamed Salah, Eden Hazard, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe all get a place in the top five of Brazilian.
With Liverpool, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain stars lined up behind a Barca symbol, Ronaldo told AS of his choices: “Messi, of course, is number one, he is a talent that means it will take 20 or 30 years to see anything similar”.
“I like Salah, Hazard, Neymar too, I like to watch him play, Mbappe of course.”
However, Portuguese superstar Ronaldo’s absence from this list does raise eyebrows.
On the other hand, about the thrilling 21-year-old Mbappe, he added: “Some people say he looks like me.
“He’s got a lot of pace, he’s got a good finish, he’s got great agility, he shoots very well with both feet, he’s got an impressive jump.
“We have similar attributes, but I’ve never liked comparisons, particularly between players of different generations, for different circumstances.”
