Jose Mourinho, who has managed many of football’s greatest players, has delved into one of the most polarized issues in the beautiful game, which is the Ronaldo-Messi debate.
The former Manchester United manager has managed the likes of Didier Drogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Samuel Eto’o among many others, so his views on football are well respected.
When asked who he thinks is the best player he has ever seen play, the Portuguese tactician went against the obvious choice of either Messi or Ronaldo.
Instead, the former Real Madrid manager went for Brazilian legend, Ronaldo De Lima. Mourinho managed Ronaldo during his time as an assistant to Bryan Robson at Barcelona.
Having seen him in training regularly, the 55-year-old believes there’s no player in the history of the game that has Ronaldo’s talents.
‘When he was at Barcelona with Bobby Robson, I realised that he was the best player I’d ever seen take to the field,’ said Mourinho, who told LiveScore he remains confounded by a goal the Brazilian scored for Barca against PSG in Rotterdam in 1997, calling it ‘awesome’.’
‘Injuries killed a career that could have been even more incredible, but the talent that that 19-year-old boy had was something incredible.
‘Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi have had longer careers. They have remained at the top every day for 15 years. ‘However, if we are talking strictly about talent and skill, nobody surpasses Ronaldo.’