Former England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey has claimed that Pablo Aimar and Juan Roman Riquelme were on the same level as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Both players won over 50 caps for Argentina and spent large chunks of their career in Spain’s LaLiga.
Speaking to SPORTbible, Heskey recalled facing Aimar with the England under-21s and not being able to get near him.
Heskey went on to describe his experience playing against Riquelme, recalling how the Argentine was able to maneuver the ball despite his smaller stature.
Interestingly, Heskey never faced Lionel Messi in his career with club and country. The Englishman, however, played against Cristiano Ronaldo nine times. He ended up on the winning side just once – when Liverpool beat Manchester United 1-0 at Old Trafford in the 2003/04 season.
Speaking on Sky Sports in 2018, Emile Heskey felt that Mohamed Salah was trying too hard. He opined that the Liverpool forward was trying to be like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo and said (via Telegrafi):
Heskey won 62 caps for Engalnd, registering seven goals and 12 assists. At club level, he is best known for his time at Liverpool. He represented the Merseyside giants on 223 occasions, scoring 60 goals and assisting 30 more.
Sripad has been a Chelsea fan through and through since the age of 9 and can watch their 2012 Champions League triumph on repeat. The undisputed ‘GOAT’ according to him is Lionel Messi and his favorite managers are Jose Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson. Apart from popular European leagues, he also likes to follow other leagues like the MLS, Saudi Pro League, Eredivisie, and Liga MX.
Sripad believes in only using the right sources for his articles, and is an expert in understanding how to get the right quotes for each news to provide proper background information. His exploits have led him to become a popular figure in European Football and interviewing Premier League legends such as Alan Shearer, Shay Given, Paul Dickov, and John Barnes. His articles have been much revered amongst the football fraternity and have been shared by the likes of John Terry, Gary Lineker, and Declan Rice.
If given a chance to change a football rule, Sripad wants VAR to be fully automated and offside rules to be less stringent. When not working, he likes to watch past Formula 1 races and play FIFA.
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