MADRID: Zinedine Zidane is confident that Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo has more to give in the future and will end up winning more World Player of the Year awards than Barcelona rival Lionel Messi.

A week ago in Zurich, the 29-year-old Portuguese striker was crowned the world’s best player of 2014 for the third time overall, leaving him just one behind his Argentine counterpart.

Zidane, now coach of Madrid nursery team Castilla, said: “What Ronaldo is doing is from another planet. If this continues, he will improve even further and may end up winning more than Messi.”

Fellow Frenchman Karim Benzema also came in for praise.

Zidane said: “He is another very important player. Sometimes it is discussed whether to change to him to a No.9 for Madrid and it’s wrong. All wrong.

“He is not a player who will score 60 goals a year like Cristiano, but thanks to his quality, he links up with everyone and always makes the moves that the team needs,” he added. “Very few in the world can do that.”

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