Master Ronaldo meets pretender Neymar in new role

MADRID:WITH Cristiano Ronaldo on one side and Neymar on the other, the heavyweight Champions League showdown between Real Madrid and Paris Saintgermain sees two of the game’s biggest global superstars collide.

Ronaldo, the current world player of the year, has rediscovered something like his best form just at the right time for Real.

PSG, meanwhile, are placing their hopes in Neymar, the world’s most expensive player and a Ballon d’or winner of the future, as they chase the European glory that has thus far eluded them.

The Brazilian left Barcelona for Paris to step out of Lionel Messi’s shadow. But, exactly seven years Ronaldo’s junior, he is already being talked about in the Spanish capital as a possible successor to the Portuguese.

So far Neymar’s route to the Ballon d’or has been blocked by the Messi-ronaldo duopoly they have won the prize five times each in the last 10 years.

If Neymar inspires PSG to victory in this tie, and then on to glory in the final in May, he will stand a good chance of ending their domination.

But while Ronaldo turned 33 last Monday, he is far from finished. He scored just four times in Real’s first 18 La Liga games, his slow start to the season following a summer overshadowed by accusations of tax evasion. But a weekend hat-trick against Real Sociedad took him to seven goals in his last four league outings.

Neymar’s first six months in France have at times been overshadowed by reports of an uneasy relationship with Edinson Cavani, the other idol at PSG and the club’s all-time record goal-scorer.

Doubts are still raised about how much the French scene motivates him, too.

But Neymar can almost do and say what he wants, as long as his performances on the field satisfy PSG’S Qatari owners after they invested a worldrecord 222 million euros to sign him.