Nani changes mind on GOAT debate and snubs Cristiano Ronaldo when naming best player of all time | OneFootball

Nani once considered Cristiano Ronaldo as the greatest player of all time, but the Portuguese winger seems to have changed his mind of late.

In total, Nani made 131 appearances alongside Ronaldo for club and country, with the pair combining for 14 goals during that time.

The pair won eight trophies alongside each other, including two Premier League titles, the Champions League and the European Championship.

While Nani has often referred to CR7 as the GOAT in the past, he seems to have changed his mind of late.

During a recent interview with ESPN, he was asked to name the greatest player of all time, to which he replied: “Ronaldinho.”

Nani also named Romario as the best finisher of all time, Lionel Messi as the best playmaker and Denilson as the best dribbler.

While Nani now recognises Ronaldinho as his GOAT, that wasn’t always the case.

During a separate interview with John Obi Mikel, Nani was discussing Ronaldo and Messi, where he described Ronaldo as the best.

“There is a big difference when people talk about Ronaldo and Messi,” Nani said.

“They’re looking in the last five years. When you want to talk about Messi and Ronaldo, you need to talk about when they were young.

“The skills, the way they were doing things with the ball and the speed, scoring goals with the left foot and the right.

“Nobody was stopping them. If you start thinking about Ronaldo now, yeah nobody likes to see his game because they say ‘ah he just touches the ball then scores goals’.

“But it’s not true. He’s 40, so you need to see him when he was young.

“I saw things in training, left, right, dribbling – it’s incredible. Every single touch on the ball was perfect, no mistakes.

“For me, he’s the best. I respect Messi because Messi is a talent who is out of this world as well, they are both great.

“We are lucky to be in the same generation and compete with them.”

Nani himself recently came out of retirement to sign for Aktobe, who play in the Kazakhstan Premier League.

It’s 11th different club that he’s played for during his professional career and the first time that he’s played in Central Asia.

“I’m very happy to have joined FC Aktobe and I am looking forward to contributing to the development of the club and football in Kazakhstan,” Nani said upon joining.