Jose Mourinho has picked former Brazil striker Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima as his greatest player of all time (G.O.A.T) while snubbing five time Ballon d’Or winners Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
A lot of football fans either go for Juventus’ Ronaldo or Barcelona’s Messi when asked the question but the former Chelsea coach picked someone entirely different when Livescore popped the question.
“Ronaldo, El Fenomeno. 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 [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.”
The former Real Madrid manager had worked with the Brazilian at Barcelona.
Ronaldo only played one season for Barcelona in 1996/97, having previously played two years for PSV, and scored an incredible 34 goals in 37 games.
Having broken the world record fee, with a transfer fee of £13.2 million, Barca sold him a year later when contract negotiations broke down for another world record fee of £19.5 million to Inter.
By 1997 and the age of just 21 the Brazilian had won the FIFA World Player of the Year award twice and would go on to win it a third time in 2002.
Ronaldo won the Golden Ball at the 1998 World Cup but the mystery surrounding his near absence at the final, when he was out of the team and then back in, stole all the headlines as Brazil lost to hosts France.
He then missed a big part of three seasons with several knee injuries for Inter which were the start of the issues that meant he never quite lived up to the potential he had, despite still having an incredible career.
The Brazilian went on to score 352 goals in 518 appearances in all competitions in his club career and without injuries it could have been even better.
