Manchester United winger Alejandro Garnacho has often made headlines for his admiration both for Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, as he got to play next to both stars early in his career.
While the question has often been whether he was a bigger fan of Ronaldo or Messi, the 19-year-old took made noise on Wednesday by calling Vinicius Junior the world’s best player.
Following Real Madrid’s epic comeback win over Bayern Munich in the second leg of the 2023-24 UEFA Champions League semifinals, the Brazilian took to Instagram and Garnacho replied: “best player in the world.”
The comment immediately went viral and it already has more than 60,000 likes. While many were surprised with Garnacho’s statement considering how much he looks up to Ronaldo and Messi, his praise for Vinicius makes sense.
The 23-year-old had another magical Champions League night for Real Madrid, and with both CR7 and Leo spending their sunset years outside Europe, Vini is making a case to be seen as the best player on Earth right now.
Vinicius leads new era of Ballon d’Or candidates after Messi, Ronaldo
Though the Ballon d’Or conversation was reduced to Messi and Ronaldo for a long time, those days are gone now. The Argentine star managed to claim the prize for a record eighth time in 2023 thanks to his World Cup win with Argentina at Qatar 2022, but a new generation is expected to take center stage now.
Vinicius is one of the rising stars who could start challenging for the prestigious award from now on, though he’s expected to face competition from Real Madrid teammate Jude Bellingham and other stars such as Kylian Mbappe or Erling Haaland.
Garnacho is just getting started at Manchester United but could also be in contention in the next few years as he’s already established himself as a starter and the future looks bright for him. This year, meanwhile, Vini could be in pole position for the 2024 award.
