Juventus News: Edwin van der Sar believes De Ligt has the same mentality as Cristiano Ronaldo

What's the story?

Ajax CEO Edwin van der Sar has compared the similarities between Matthijs de Ligt and Cristiano Ronaldo. In an interview, he likened De Ligt's mentality to that of the Portuguese international.

The former Dutch international has first-hand information on both players since he had previously played with Ronaldo at Manchester United and worked with De Ligt at Ajax.

In case you didn't know...

Matthijs de Ligt made a high profile move to Juventus during the summer transfer window after rumours linked him to multiple top European clubs such as Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain.

The Dutch international, who won the European Golden Boy award in 2018, was one of the key players when Ajax made it into the last four of the UEFA Champions League last season.

The heart of the matter

Former Manchester United shot-stopper and current Ajax CEO Edwin van der Sar believes that De Ligt has the same mentality as his teammate Cristiano Ronaldo.

The 48-year-old former goalkeeper was speaking about the 20-year-old defender during an interview with ESPN and commented,

"He had been all his life at Ajax. So to step away, move with your girlfriend and the family to a different city, a different language…”

"But his mentality and the way he wants to improve… he wants to be the best defender in the world. And I’ve seen that with a few players. One of them is playing in the same team, Cristiano Ronaldo."

"When I played at Man United with him, he had the same desire and attitude to work hard, to become better every training. And that’s the same mentality and hunger as Matthijs de Ligt."

Van der Sar has first-hand experience of both players and highlighted the similarities between the pair in terms of desire, attitude and ambition...https://t.co/NW2gUPQyY8

— AS English (@English_AS) October 11, 2019

What's next?

The Juventus defender will be seen in action against Belarus today in the UEFA Euro qualifiers.