“In terms of pure football, honestly, I don’t think so” - When ex-Real Madrid star made bold claim on greatness of Cristiano Ronaldo

Eden Hazard's old comments about Cristiano Ronaldo have recently resurfaced. The Chelsea legend claimed that he was better than the Portuguese superstar in terms of pure football but the Al Nassr star was a bigger player than him.

Hazard told L'Equipe that Lionel Messi is the greatest player in the history of the game. He believes that Ronaldo does not come close to the Argentine and is behind the Chelsea icon and Neymar in terms of pure football ability. He said:

"Individually, Messi is perhaps the only one. I loved watching the Barcelona player, less so at the end, but he's the greatest in history. It's impossible to take the ball away from him.

"Cristiano is a bigger player than me but, in terms of pure football, I honestly don't think so. Neymar, maybe. After that, he's no better than me, but at Real, you've got the best, also in terms of their careers: Benzema, Modric, they were the best, Kroos, Kev' (De Bruyne), they all exude football."

Cristiano Ronaldo continues to play for Al Nassr in the Saudi Pro League, while Eden Hazard called it time on his career after terminating his contract at Real Madrid in 2023.

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Eden Hazard disagrees with Cristiano Ronaldo's comments on Ligue1

Eden Hazard hit out at Ligue1 last year and claimed that the Saudi Pro League was better than the French league. He claimed that the competition was better in the Middle East and said:

"To be honest, I think the Saudi League is not worse than French league, in my opinion. In [the] French league I think you have two, three teams with a good level. In Saudi now I think it's more competitive. They can say whatever they want, it's just my opinion and I played there one year so I know what I'm talking about. But I think right now we are better than [the] French league, we still improve."

However, Hazard was unhappy with the comments after spending a lot of time with Lille. He claimed that a team made of the best talent from Ligue1 would beat the Saudi Pro League counterparts. He said (via GFFN):

“I don’t agree with him [Cristiano Ronaldo]. I’m sure if a Ligue 1 team played against a Saudi Arabian team, they would win. Maybe not easily, like people might think, but the level in France is good.”

Cristiano Ronaldo once again claimed earlier this year that the Saudi Pro League was better than Ligue1. He believes that the quality cannot be compared because players need to be running around in around 40 degrees in the Middle East.