Cristiano Ronaldo Admits He Considers Himself The Best Player In The World After 'Best Year'

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Real Madrid and Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo has admitted that he considers himself the best player in the world in his own head, but has said that he’ll leave others to judge him against his rivals, 90min reports.

Speaking to La Gazzetta dello Sport, the 31-year-old also revealed that his career could have been very different if it weren’t for decisions he made over a decade ago.

He told the Italian newspaper:

“In my head, I am the best player in the world. And I am working very hard every day with the ambition to be the strongest. It is then up to others to judge me. I always want to improve myself. I am very motivated and I believe that is the key behind my success on the pitch.”

The prolific forward added that 2016 may have been his best year yet as a player, after Portugal’s triumph at the summer’s European Championships.

“It was probably the best of my career,” he conceded.

“To bring home two trophies like this in one year and then to be scorer of the Champions League and the UEFA symbol player was a dream.

“I think it’s early to talk about [a fourth Ballon d’Or]. Of course I would love to win it.”

He then went on to talk about how he could have moved to Serie A rather than the Premier League with Manchester United as a youngster, saying:

“Both Inter and Juventus wanted to give me an opportunity to play for them. But my dream was to play in Manchester and that’s where I went.”

“You have a demanding league,” he continued “which is coming back to the top level after suffering a tarnished reputation. The teams have got very good players and standard has got much higher in recent times. This is also good for Europe as well because there are now more competitive squads in the Champions League.”