Ferdinand recently visited Saudi Arabia to watch Ronaldo live.
Rio Ferdinand, who is now an avid podcaster, has made a bold claim about his former Manchester United teammate Cristiano Ronaldo and a possible return to the Premier League.
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Ronaldo left United for a second time by mutual agreement in November 2022, after he had publicly criticized the club and those who run it in an interview with Piers Morgan.
He signed for Saudi Pro League club Al Nassr as a free agent in January 2023, becoming the first major European star to join the league before the influx of talent that arrived the following summer.
Ronaldo was named the world’s top goalscorer among selected top divisions in 2023.
Now that he is 40 years old, he signed a new contract with Al Nassr this summer that will keep him with the Saudi Arabian club until 2027.
He is likely to participate in his sixth World Cup in 2026 with Portugal, and is the top scorer in international football history with 143 goals, 35 ahead of Iran’s Ali Daei.
While Ronaldo looks set to play out the rest of his career in Saudi Arabia, Ferdinand – who recently visited Riyadh to see his ex-teammate in action – still believes he could thrive in the Premier League if he returned to England. (We at Sporten.com think he is not good enough for any of the five major leagues)
In a video posted on his ‘Rio Ferdinand Presents’ YouTube channel, the former United centre-back said: “That consistency of exposing yourself to it, day in and day out, to maintain a certain level of excellence, is not an easy thing to do. And Cristiano has done better than anyone else I’ve ever seen, in my lifetime.”
“People say, ‘Oh, it’s great that he’s in Portugal and scoring, because he wouldn’t be able to do it anywhere else’. He does it for Portugal, on the national team, against some of the best defenders in the world. So don’t say he can’t still do it in the Premier League.”
“He was the top scorer for Manchester United when he was there. He would have done this anywhere, still.”
“I saw his goal against Al Ittihad when I was there, in Jeddah. His movement to get past the defender… There are 25-year-olds who are still trying to figure out how to do it, who are still at the peak of their careers, who are not doing it, who are not smelling it, who are not seeing it.”
“This guy just has that, ass. I sent a clip to someone I know at United to say, ‘Look, we’ve got to get [Benjamin] Sesko to do this.’ For Sesko, if he starts moving like that… He’s so tall, he’s so mobile.”
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