Cristiano Ronaldo once answered the question of who deserves to follow in his footsteps in an interview in 2017. There are those who have truly become famous, but there are also many players who have not been able to develop as expected.
Cristiano Ronaldo deserves to be considered a great legend of world football. The Portuguese player has had an illustrious career, with countless individual and collective titles.
Ronaldo’s most successful period at club level was when he played for MU and Real Madrid. However, he continued to achieve success in his later years when he played for Juventus and now Al Nassr.
Besides his talent and tireless efforts in training, Ronaldo has rarely suffered serious injuries in his career. That is what has put Cristiano Ronaldo in the ranks of the greatest names in football history.
So who is worthy of becoming Cristiano Ronaldo’s successor? In fact, the Portuguese superstar once answered this question with the Daily Star, in an interview in 2017. There are people who have really become famous, but there are also many players who have not been able to develop as expected.
Players that Ronaldo predicted would become world football superstars
Kylian Mbappe
As early as 2017, Kylian Mbappe’s skills attracted great attention from experts. He was the key factor in Monaco’s Ligue 1 championship in 2017, despite being only 19 years old at that time.
Ronaldo’s predictions about Mbappe have come true, as the French striker is one of the best players in the world today at the age of 25. He has a World Cup title, a hat-trick in the final against Argentina and countless other achievements. If he moves to Real Madrid in the summer of 2024, Mbappe will go even further on the road to becoming a legend.
Marco Asensio
As a former teammate at Real Madrid, Ronaldo clearly understands Marco Asensio’s talent in the Royal team. However, this is one of the Portuguese superstar’s wrong predictions.
After a brilliant start, Marco Asensio has slowed down for various reasons. He lost his place at Real Madrid and has now moved to PSG. The Spanish midfielder is still struggling to find his place at the French team.
Eden Hazard
Once considered a player who could approach the level of Ronaldo and Messi, Eden Hazard’s career suddenly stalled due to various injuries when he moved to Real Madrid.
The Belgian midfielder gradually lost himself at the Bernabeu, and just officially announced his retirement in October 2023.
Neymar
Also a talented player and predicted by Ronaldo to be on par with himself and Messi, Neymar has never been able to reach the same level as his two seniors. Despite his talent, Neymar often does not focus on football, and often has parties and many other pleasures off the field.
After his time playing for PSG, Neymar moved to Saudi Arabia to play. However, he recently suffered a knee injury and had to rest for a long time.
Ousmane Dembele
Another talent whose career has been ruined by injury. Dembele had a promising start at Dortmund and has attracted the attention of many big clubs.
However, the time spent injured more than playing at Barcelona has permanently prevented Dembele from becoming a big superstar of world football.
Marcus Rashford
Another wrong prediction by Ronaldo. In 2017, Rashford was one of the promising talents of Carrington, and was planned to become a star of MU in the coming years.
However, Rashford seems to be just a young talent who never grows up. Currently, he has not performed as expected at MU, and has also been involved in disagreements with Ronaldo himself when the Portuguese player played here in the 2021/22 and 2022/23 seasons.
