Kane can be spoken of in the same sentence as Messi, Ronaldo: Rio
dubai — Former England and Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand has said that countryman Harry Kane can be spoken of in the same sentence as superstars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo but felt he still has some way to go to be compared to the likes of them.
Ferdinand, who made a whopping 312 appearances for Manchester United and was their rock solid centre-back for 12 long years, said that the Tottenham Hotspur ace has had an astonishing strike rate for both club and country.
“He can now be spoken in the same sentence as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. He has had an astonishing strike rate but he still cannot yet be compared with Messi and Ronaldo. Kane still has a long way to go,” Ferdinand told Khaleej Times in an interview on Friday.
Ferdinand was in Dubai to launch the inaugural Dubai Fitness Challenge, initiated by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai.
Kane has had a stellar year where he has plundered 43 goals in 37 appearances for Spurs and for England. Those exploits have earned the 24-year-old an entry into a 30-man shortlist for the prestigious Ballon d’Or.
He is the only Englishman and one of seven English Premier League players to make it to the list. The list has FC Barcelona’s Messi and Luis Suarez as well as Real Madrid’s Ronaldo and Paris Saint-Germain’s Neymar.
Meanwhile, Ferdinand also had an opinion on clubs spending huge sums on players in the current transfer market and said that the players were lucky to get such salaries.
The recently-concluded summer transfer window, quite literally smashed records, with French Ligue 1 club Paris Saint Germain splashing the cash to sign Brazilian ace Neymar for a world-record sum. The transfer window was littered with many other big deals with FC Barcelona signing
There are so many people who want to be fit, they want to be able to stay healthy. We in England, we would love to have something like this. I think it is a unique idea and event Rio Ferdinand
Paulinho and Ousmane Dembele for huge figures.
Fifa, the world governing body said that the close-season transfer window saw $4.71 billion (3.96 billion euros) spent worldwide, over three quarters of which were from the top five European leagues.
“The players are lucky now to get such sums. I was lucky back then. It is the industry that sets the price on players. The players are lucky. Whether that’s fair, I cannot say. Soldiers should be paid as much as well but this is the world we live in,” said the 38-year-old.
Ferdinand, who won six Premier League titles with Manchester United, was the most expensive English footballer in history and the world’s most expensive defender, when he joined The Red Devils back in 2002. His contract at that time was valued at 34 million pounds.
Earlier, in 2000, Ferdinand was sold from West Ham United to Leeds United for 18 million pounds, a then British transfer record.
Ferdinand, capped 81 times by England, was also surprised at the turnout for the Dubai Fitness Challenge and felt other cities could take a leaf out of Dubai’s book.
“When it was explained to me, I didn’t realise how big this is and how much people are invested in this and whether people would come out to enjoy and embrace it. But since I’ve been here, I can’t believe the response, the people. There are so many people who want to be fit, they want to be able to stay healthy. We in England, we would love to have something like this. I think it is a unique idea and event,” he said.
james@khaleejtimes.com