Ronaldo Nazario and Cristiano Ronaldo are two of the greatest players in the game and are well known as goal-scoring machines. Though the two didn’t actually play in the same era, they are always compared with each other due to the similarities in their names. And according to former Manchester United defender Mikael Silvestre, who played alongside both the greats, believes that the Brazilian forward is more dangerous than his Portuguese namesake. Ronaldo De Lima Takes a Dig at Cristiano Over Name Rivalry, Says ‘It Must Be Boring to Hear That I Am the Real Ronaldo’.

The ex-French international played with Ronaldo at Inter Milan before moving to Manchester United, where he played with Cristiano and won countless domestic honours. While talking about the Brazilian, Silvestre told United’s official website ‘He was unstoppable. You called him El Fenomeno then,’ Brazilian Ronaldo Better Than Cristiano, Former Inter Milan Striker Christian Vieri Ranks R9 Above CR7.

‘I played against [Lionel] Messi and I played with Cristiano at Manchester United, but he [Ronaldo] is something else in terms of speed. Everything is top level’ he added. ‘Cristiano, maybe you can guess that he has three or four tricks he would use most of the time, but Ronnie, it was always something different.’ Said the ex-Manchester United defender.

‘He was inventing things on the spot, so you can’t guide him left or right because he’s going to get out of these situations, no matter what. He could score from any type of position. He was playing on one leg at some points and was still beating defenders all over Europe.’ He added further.

Both the players are widely regarded as the best strikers of their generation but have a fairly different playing style. Cristiano started out as a winger before converting himself into a penalty box predator while Ronaldo was always a number nine.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 30, 2020 03:47 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).