Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo acknowledged he was \u201canother generation\u201d to Spain starlet Lamine Yamal but said Sunday\u2019s Nations League final was more than just a battle between the duo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The final in Munich has been framed as a showdown between veteran Ronaldo, 40, one of the game\u2019s biggest names, and 17-year-old Yamal, the most exciting young talent in world football.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ronaldo scored the winner to send Portugal past Germany into the final and Yamal was named man-of-the-match after bagging a brace in Spain\u2019s wild 5-4 semi-final win over France.Ronaldo, however, said the focus on the two individuals was overblown, calling Spain \u201cmaybe the best national team in the world\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are different generations, one is coming in and another is exiting the stage. If you want to see me as another generation, then that\u2019s OK.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you talk about a clash between Cristiano and someone else, that\u2019s not how it works. The media always try to hype things up, which is a normal thing, but it\u2019s one team versus another team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve been talking about Lamine a lot and you\u2019re right to do so because he\u2019s very good,\u201d Ronaldo told journalists, adding \u201cbut I\u2019d like to talk about the team.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They\u2019ve got Nico Williams, great midfielders like Pedri and their coach (Luis) de la Fuente is very good, very strong, very disciplined.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013 \u2018Funny hair\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Portugal last beat their Iberian neighbours in a competitive fixture in 21 years ago at Euro 2024, a match which Ronaldo started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like Yamal, Ronaldo burst onto the scene at a young age.Aged just 18, Ronaldo impressed so much for boyhood side Sporting in a 3-1 win over Manchester United in a friendly in Lisbon that the English clubdecided to buy him, bringing him to Old Trafford less than a week later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like a young Ronaldo, Yamal has consistently impressed since bursting onto the scene, winning a league and cup double with Barcelona this season after lifting the Euro 2024 title in Germany last summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Portuguese veteran asked media to allow the teenager to grow and improve without pressure, reminding them the Spanish star \u201cwith funny hair\u201d was just \u201cthree years older than my son\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe kid has been doing very well, but what I ask is for you to let him grow, not put him under pressure. For the good of football, we need to let him grow in his own way and enjoy the talent he has.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both Spain and Portugal have already won the Nations League. Spain are the current champions from their win in 2023, while Portugal won the inaugural tournament back in 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo acknowledged he was \u201canother generation\u201d to Spain starlet Lamine Yamal but said Sunday\u2019s Nations League final was more than just a battle between the duo. The final in Munich has been framed as a showdown between veteran Ronaldo, 40, one of the game\u2019s biggest names, and 17-year-old Yamal, the most exciting young talent in world football. Ronaldo scored the winner to send Portugal past Germany into the final and Yamal was named man-of-the-match after bagging a brace in Spain\u2019s wild 5-4 semi-final win over France.Ronaldo, however, said the focus on the two individuals was overblown, calling Spain \u201cmaybe the best national team in the world\u201d. \u201cThere are different generations, one is coming in and another is exiting the stage. If you want to see me as another generation, then that\u2019s OK.\u201c When you talk about a clash between Cristiano and someone else, that\u2019s not how it works. The media always try to hype things up, which is a normal thing, but it\u2019s one team versus another team.\u201d \u201cYou\u2019ve been talking about Lamine a lot and you\u2019re right to do so because he\u2019s very good,\u201d Ronaldo told journalists, adding \u201cbut I\u2019d like to talk about the team.\u201c They\u2019ve got Nico Williams, great midfielders like Pedri and their coach (Luis) de la Fuente is very good, very strong, very disciplined.\u201d \u2013 \u2018Funny hair\u2019 \u2013 Portugal last beat their Iberian neighbours in a competitive fixture in 21 years ago at Euro 2024, a match which Ronaldo started. Like Yamal, Ronaldo burst onto the scene at a young age.Aged just 18, Ronaldo impressed so much for boyhood side Sporting in a 3-1 win over Manchester United in a friendly in Lisbon that the English clubdecided to buy him, bringing him to Old Trafford less than a week later. Like a young Ronaldo, Yamal has consistently impressed since bursting onto the scene, winning a league and cup double with Barcelona this season after lifting the Euro 2024 title in Germany last summer. The Portuguese veteran asked media to allow the teenager to grow and improve without pressure, reminding them the Spanish star \u201cwith funny hair\u201d was just \u201cthree years older than my son\u201d. \u201cThe kid has been doing very well, but what I ask is for you to let him grow, not put him under pressure. For the good of football, we need to let him grow in his own way and enjoy the talent he has.\u201d Both Spain and Portugal have already won the Nations League. Spain are the current champions from their win in 2023, while Portugal won the inaugural tournament back in 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-and-international-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25610"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25612,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25610\/revisions\/25612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}