Gerard Pique believes the best version of Cristiano Ronaldo was the one who dominated Europe during his time at Real Madrid.
Despite being 37, Ronaldo is still going strong after returning to Manchester United in the summer from Juventus. Though United have struggled this season — which has culminated in failure to qualify for the Champions League — the Portuguese has still delivered plenty of goals.
Many had doubted Ronaldo's abilities when coming back to the Premier League, but he is currently the third top scorer in the division with 18 strikes, with only Son Heung-min and Mohamed Salah grabbing more. In all competitions, he has scored a further six goals.
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It speaks to how remarkable Ronaldo has been that even such an impressive campaign pails in comparison to earlier exploits in his career. The No.7 arrived at United in 2003 as a teenager and, after developing his raw talent for a few seasons, he truly came of age between 2006-2009 — helping United win the Premier League three years in a row and the Champions League in 2008.
He won the first of five Ballon d'Ors in 2008 and then completed his dream move to Real Madrid the following year, where his career went to even greater heights. Eventually switching roles from a winger to an out an all out striker, Ronaldo became one of the greatest goalscorers of all time, won four more Champions Leagues, four more Ballon d'Ors and a myriad of other personal accolades.
Pique, a great rival of Ronaldo as a key player at Barcelona during that time, believes he was at his best in Madrid.
"I think that in Manchester he played more as a winger so he was more like focused on the show, the spectacular," he told Gary Neville when asked which version of Ronaldo was the best on the Overlap.
"In Madrid he started to play as a striker. He was a finisher. He scored so many goals and he was so important for the success of Real Madrid, winning the Champions League and some leagues. Difficult to choose, maybe to the Madrid one as he won more titles."
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