Saturday 20 / April / 2024
Muscat: Future generations of footballers in Oman will be inspired by Cristiano Ronaldo joining Juventus Football Club, according to a senior coach at the club’s academy in the Sultanate.
Juventus Oman operates soccer school programmes for children in the country, and often encourages the children who attend – some of whom are as young as three years old – by discussing some of Juve’s current crop of leading players, including attacker Paulo Dybala, defensive midfielder Sami Khedira and forward Gonzalo Higuain.
However, with 33-year-old Ronaldo having joined Juventus on July 10, 2018, senior coach Gerald Lami says the signing of the Portuguese superstar will inspire talented footballers to work even harder, as they aspire to reach the greatness of the five-time FIFA Ballon D’Or winner.
“I believe Ronaldo transferring to Juventus will bring more and more supporters to the club, as Ronaldo comes with a huge fan base, even though Juventus has already been an enormous club with an extraordinary fans base. So I think Ronaldo brings that little extra to the club,” said Lami.
“I think he will lift the club even more, and the supporters, especially the young kids will see Juventus in a different light. I believe Dybala used to be the main player, but now that Ronaldo has come, I think he will guide Dybala, help him along the way and make him a better player,” he added.
Ronaldo moved to Juventus from Real Madrid – with whom he won the Champions League once again last season – for €100 million (OMR44.66 million), as the Italian side chases their own elusive Champions League.
The Portugal national team captain is considered to be one of the best players in the world.
, and has won an impressive collection of honours across whichever club he has played for.
Having begun his career in the youth academies of Sporting Clube De Portugal in Lisbon, Ronaldo moved to Manchester United in 2003, where he was the spearhead of a deadly United team under Sir Alex Ferguson that brought the club much success, including three Premier League trophies, one Champions League, one Community Shield, one Club World Cup, one FA Cup and two Football League Cups.
After six seasons with the Red Devils, Ronaldo made the move to Madrid, where he has scored 450 goals in 438 appearances, shattering a number of records. He has also won two Primera Liga titles, two Copas del Rey, two Spanish Super Cups, two UEFA Super Cups, three FIFA Club World Cups, and most importantly, four UEFA Champions Leagues, including La Decima, Real’s legendary 10th Champions League title.
Ronaldo is also the top scorer for Portugal, with whom he won the 2016 European Championships, beating hosts France 1-0 in the final in extra-time to end his national team’s long-suffering drought of a lack of trophies at the highest level, despite having very talented teams in the past.
He was also key for Portugal at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, scoring a hat trick in their opener with Spain, as the national team made it to the knockout stages before they were defeated by eventual quarter-finalists Uruguay.
