Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo has heaped praise on Paris Saint-Germain star Kylian Mbappe for his impressive displays this season in Ligue 1 and the Champions League.
Mbappe, who was part of the French team that won the 2018 World Cup, is currently one of the best players in the world. The Frenchman came into the football scene with Ligue 1 side Monaco in 2016/17 before joining PSG a year later. Mbappe has scored 24 goals this season, 15 of those coming in Ligue 1 and five in the UEFA Champions League.
The highly-rated 21-year-old has also bagged a total of 19 UCL goals and was the first player to score 10 Champions League goals as a teenager. He has also lifted a World Cup trophy, three Ligue 1 titles and three other domestic trophies for France, Monaco, and PSG.
In a promotional video shared by Marca, Ronaldo described Mbappe, who has been continually linked to Real Madrid, as the present and the future of football. The five-time Ballon d’Or winner also added that Mbappe is a fantastic player and very fast with the ball.
“Mbappe is the future and the present,” Ronaldo said.
“He’s a fantastic player, very fast, and he will be the future.”
Meanwhile, Mbappe also recently admitted that Ronaldo is one of his idols, adding that he is looking to emulate the career of the Juventus star. The PSG forward noted that he can’t follow the footstep of Barcelona star Lionel Messi, again after leaving boyhood team Monaco to join PSG in 2017.
‘”For me it is too late to make a career like Messi, I would have had to stay in Monaco. Without taking any merit from Messi, now I have to be inspired by the career of Cristiano,’ Mbappe told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“Juventus is a strong team and is shown by the finals he played in recent seasons. They have always lacked something to make a difference, and now he has it thanks to Cristiano.
“He is the player that makes you win the important things. This year Juventus is among the favorites, but there are also the usual ones, Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool.
“If you are French, you obviously grow up with Zidane as an idol. Then another idol was Cristiano, with whom I have already had the good fortune to measure myself as a rival, also with the national team,’ Mbappé added.
“Then I loved the great Brazilian players, like (Edson Arantes do Nascimento) Pelé, (Ronaldo de Assis Moreira) Ronaldinho, Ronaldo Nazario or Ricardo Kaká .. To my fans I want to give the message of a boy who believed in his dream, giving the maximum, trying to overcome its limits and leave a mark on my sport.”
