Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo has admitted that he looks up to himself as an inspiration in his quest to be the world’s best ever player. Ronaldo, a three-time Ballon d'Or winner, said that he always wanted to be like the Portugal players during his upbringing and added that his desire to play for the national team came above all and inspired him to work hard and achieve his dream.
"Most of the time, I inspired myself," Ronaldo told Unscriptd. "I'm self-motivated. But of course, at that age, I was looking at a big reference in the national team - for example, [Luis] Figo, Rui Costa, Fernando Couto. It was kind of a dream to reach that level.”
"The national team, I'd look at them and I'd speak for myself: I want to be a professional player and I want to play for the national team. But I don't have one specific person that I just follow,” he added. "As I said before, I'm self-motivated. I'm always like that since the beginning when I was young, [up until] now.”
The 30-year-old also talked about his respect for other sports and expressed an eagerness to learn lessons from elite players regardless of the field of sports they are associated with. "Of course, I appreciate other players, talented players, great players - not just in football but in other sports because people enjoy to see, in different specific sports, the best ones,” he continued.
"You should be able to understand that you don't know everything so the other guy can help you in this kind of way so I just pick the best things off other sports."
Ronaldo already has plans for the future
The Portuguese international is currently entering his thirties and has no intentions of calling it a day anytime soon. However, a move away from Real Madrid is looking likely in the next couple of years due to his recent problems with the fans. A dream move back to Old Trafford, where he made his name, must surely be in his mind considering the fact that he has achieved almost everything he wanted in club colours.
Ronaldo has ruled out staying in the game as a manager and had admitted that he would live like a ‘king’ after he is done with his playing career. He has scored 55 goals in 123 appearances for Portugal and will be looking forward to the Euro 2016 with the national side.
