Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will never match Ronaldo Nazario's talent, says Jose Mourinho

El Fenomeno: Ronaldo Luis Nazario de Lima
Bongarts/Getty Images
Alex Young @alexwsyoung12 October 2019

Former Brazil striker Ronaldo, not Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, is the greatest player of all time, according to Jose Mourinho.

Ronaldo Nazario spent one season at Barcelona, the 1996-97 campaign, while Mourinho was working as an interpreter for manager Bobby Robson, and scored a remarkable 47 goals in 49 games.

As Messi and Portuguese star Ronaldo dominate the current football landscape, Mourinho was in no doubt that the two-time World Cup winner was a greater talent than the much-lauded pair.

"Ronaldo, 'El Fenomeno', Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi have had longer careers, they have remained at the top every day for 15 years," Mourinho told LiveScore.

"However, if we are talking strictly about talent and skill, nobody surpasses Ronaldo [Nazario].

"When he was at Barcelona with Bobby Robson, I realised that he was the best player I'd ever seen take to the field.

"Injuries killed a career that could have been even more incredible, but the talent that that 19-year-old boy had was something incredible.

"In 1997, Barcelona played against PSG in Rotterdam and Ronaldo's goal, 1-0. Awesome."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Sign up you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy notice .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in