A former teammate of Cristiano Ronaldo, Raul Albiol, has stated that it would be particularly difficult for the Juventus man to score 40 goals this season.
Ronaldo has scored 40 or more goals in each of his last 8 seasons in Spain, banging in goals at an incredible rate that has so far been unprecedented– except by Messi.
Now at Juventus, Ronaldo has so far been unable to find the net after 3 games and his former teammate, Albiol, thinks he’ll find it much harder in the Serie A.
The two are sure to meet at some point, with Albiol now turning out for Serie A rivals Napoli.
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Speaking to AS, he said: “It’s true that in Italy, football is more tactical and defensive, as well as being very physical, so you have to know how to play.
“Cristiano’s a great player with tremendous quality, but in Italy it’ll be harder for him to score 40 goals.
“Also, I hope he doesn’t because it would be good for Juventus but bad for Napoli.”
Albiol conceded that early season droughts are not a new thing for Ronaldo as he also started last season slowly but went on to score 44 goals including 15 in the Champions League.
“He also started slowly with Madrid last season,” said the Napoli man
“He didn’t score goals at the start of the campaign, yet he finished up again with some mindboggling numbers.
“If Cristiano has spent his entire career scoring bags of goals every season, it’s not by chance.”
Ronaldo will get another chance to score with a match against Sassuolo on Sunday having been left out of Portugal’s squad for the UEFA Nations League.