Brazilian football icon, Ronaldo, has been a key observer of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Though his nation's team, Brazil, are already out of the tournament, having lost to Croatia in the quarter-finals, Ronaldo feels France has the ability to go all the way in the tournament. The legendary striker also picked the star who he things "will be the best player of the tournament". While a number of top stars like Lionel Messi, Luka Modric and Kylian Mbappe have reached the semi-finals with their respective teams, Ronaldo has a firm favorite for the golden ball prize.
Speaking to the media at a roundtable in Doha, Ronaldo picked Kylian Mbappe as the man who can go on to bag the 'best player in the FIFA World Cup' prize this time.
"I can talk about how fast he is, how good he is and he reminded me of when I played," he said. "He knows how to use his ability, how to go faster than the other players and use that ability to assist or score.
As for his predictions, Ronaldo feels France will successfully defend their World Cup title while Mbappe will be named the "best player at the tournament".
"I think France is the favourite team now to win the World Cup. I said that before the World Cup starts and, for me, Mbappe is going to be the best player at this World Cup."
France are up against the giant-killers in Morocco next. Morocco, the only African side in FIFA World Cup history to have reached the semi-finals, have already eliminated the likes of Belgium and Portugal from the tournament. They would be looking to complete another 'upset' in the semi-final stage as they take on France.
Mbappe already has 5 goals to his name in the ongoing FIFA World Cup and is on course to end the campaign as the top-scoring player.