Former Manchester United midfielder, Markus Neumayr has hailed Cristiano Ronaldo’s desire to be regarded as the best player in the world, insisting his work ethic is unrivalled.
Ronaldo received the Ballon d’Or award – football’s greatest individual honour – for the fourth time on Monday, pipping Barcelona star Lionel Messi to the accolade.
The 31-year-old has enjoyed a remarkable 2016 after helping Real Madrid win the Champions League, before captaining Portugal to European Championship glory.
Neumayr – a United youth academy graduate who trained with the first team during the 2005-06 campaign, before moving on without having made an appearance for the club – has suggested Messi is more naturally talented than Ronaldo.
However, the current FC Luzern man reckons there isn’t another player around who works as hard as Ronaldo does.
Recalling what it was like training with Ronaldo at United, Neumayr exclusively told Goal: “You saw from the beginning that he had so much talent.
“I guess he doesn’t have the same talent as Messi on one level, but he works harder than everybody else. This is why he is the world-class player he is.
“When I met him for the first time at United he had a completely different body. He started to work on it every day. Another example is his heading ability. Through hard work he developed into a player who is one of the best headers of a ball in the world. Every single ability was increased permanently because he did everything for it.”
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