Cristiano Ronaldo Hailed 'King' By Team Captain From Different Sport

Cristiano Ronaldo was praised and hailed “king” by a team captain from a far different sport.

After an array of individual accomplishments throughout his stellar career, Ronaldo ultimately became one of the greatest athletes of his generation. With a staggering over 219 million followers on Instagram, Ronaldo is the most-followed individual in the world. This is why it is a no brainer that even in other sports, “CR7” is also recognized.

A recent compliment came from Rohit Gurunath Sharma, a cricket star who captains the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League. In a Facebook live conversation with Bangladesh captain Tamim Iqbal (via India Today), Sharma opened up about his admiration towards the five-time Ballon d’Or winner as an overall athlete.

According to Sharma, Ronaldo is “the king” and everybody has to recognize his achievements. The batsman even emphasized that everybody has to “bow down and applaud” Ronaldo’s rise to stardom.

"Who does not love Ronaldo? Ronaldo is the king. What he has done with his career is simply outstanding. You have to bow down and applaud whatever he has achieved in his career because it is not easy because of the background that he came from," Sharma said.

The 33-year-old then revealed that he has always been fascinated by athletes who have overcome adversities just to reach the top.

"He had a very rough time at the start. I appreciate all these people who have had a hard time in their career at the start, and towards the end, they have gone on to make it very big out of whatever opportunities they had," Sharma added.

When talking about Ronaldo, it’s hard not to think about his biggest rival Lionel Messi. Surprisingly, Messi was also recently lauded by a cricket star as well. In another live Facebook chat with Khaleej Times (via Hindustan Times), India batsman Suresh Raina compared the legendary Sachin Tendulkar with six-time Ballon d’Or winner Messi.

“I am a big fan of Messi. He is so down to earth, Both Sachin and Messi are very good when it comes to taking care of people around them because in sports you need to be really humble,” Raina said.

Much like Messi, only few players can be put in the same footing as Tendulkar in the history of cricket. The former India batsman broke numerous records during his cricketing days, and in fact, some of which are still unbroken even to this day.