Pogba Can Be World’s Best At Man Utd – Ferdinand

Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand says Paul Pogba has a chance to match Cristiano Ronaldo’s feat and become the the world’s best player while at Old Trafford.

The 23-year-old Juventus star on Tuesday sealed a record-breaking move to the 13-time Premier League champions.

Pogba, who was allowed to leave Manchester United for for a minimal fee in the summer of 2012, grew into one of the world’s top young players in his four seasons with with the Serie A giants, and Ferdinand, who watched Pogba’s progress in Turin, is confident the do-it-all Frenchman can approach Ronaldo’s accomplishments at the club.

“Paul knew what he wanted — he wanted to be the best player that his ability would allow,” Ferdinand wrote on his Facebook page. “He knew hard work aligned with his natural talent would go a long way to getting him there.

“You could see he had a pure love of the game, always around to do freestyle skills before and after training, extra work on the training ground on various areas of his game and, importantly, you could see he was his own man, not a follower — someone who would not be influenced by others.

“He is well on his way [to becoming the best], and, with the platform of Old Trafford, he has a real opportunity to be the next Man United player after Cristiano Ronaldo to be crowned the best player in the world.

“Man United need to build around a group of young, hungry players like [Anthony] Martial, [Jesse] Lingard, [Marcus] Rashford, and Pogba is the one to lead that group from the front — the only way he would want it. Good luck, Paul.”

Ferdinand recounted a conversation with Pogba immediately following the Juve No. 10’s deal to sign with the Old Lady, in which he implored the youngster to stay at United.

“We all know that he was allowed [reluctantly] to leave for Juventus but before he went, I stopped him in the corridor at Carrington and started to tell him he is making a mistake going there ‘the Italian league is weaker, the stadiums aren’t full’ etc, anything to deter him but he said the deal had been done.

“I finished by saying ‘what do you want to be man, a top player at the best club or what?’ Paul looked at me calmly and replied ‘The best player in the world.’ I walked off stunned, not ‘I want a chance, I need games’ … this boy was thinking way beyond that!”