In basketball circles, names do not come much bigger than Michael Jordan. The Chicago Bulls legend is widely considered to be the greatest player to have ever graced an NBA court, with seemingly superhuman feats allowing him to rise in trademark fashion above mere mortals.
In the world of football, Cristiano Ronaldo fills a similar mould. He also has quite a leap on him, while there is seemingly no end to his talents when it comes to delivering moments of match-altering brilliance that leave a global audience in awe.
Between them, MJ and CR7 boast quite the medal collection, while entries in the record books with their names etched alongside appear set to stand the test of time. Many will dare to dream of scaling such heights, but few will get anywhere close.
In the present, Ronaldo is back in the hunt for more silverware with Manchester United. Within Champions League odds from Betfair, the Red Devils are rated as 11/1 shots to go all the way. With a Portuguese talisman in their ranks, anything is possible.
It would take a bold call in Champions League tips to side against a five-time winner of the most prestigious prize in European football, with history dictating that an all-time great can achieve anything that he puts his mind to.
There is every reason to believe that said focus will have been narrowed even further in 2021-22. While Ronaldo may appear to be from another planet at times, he is not immortal and will have to hang up his boots at some stage.
Jordan is a perfect example of how ability mixed with professionalism and a relentless drive to be the best can carry you to the very top of a profession, but nobody can remain on that perch forever. For the Bulls maestro, there was always going to be ‘The Last Dance’.
Hunger
Millions around the world have been offered an insight into how Jordan set about cementing his legacy while landing title after title with a star-studded team in Chicago. For him, runners-up are the first losers and failure is not a word in his vocabulary.
Ronaldo is a student of the same dictionary and will continue to defy logic and biology for as long as a finely tuned body holds out.
He writes the same scripts as the sporting icon from the United States once did and may be in the process of taking in a final foray onto the dance floor of his own. Manchester United are not the force they were during his first spell in English football, but with a five-time Ballon d’Or winner in their ranks the stars are there to be shot at.
Ex-Red Devils boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said earlier this season when seeing Ronaldo snatch a last-gasp equaliser in a 2-2 draw with Atalanta: “That must be a Michael Jordan moment when he wins championships in extra time.”
Jordan was a master of the buzzer-beater, of pulling victory from the jaws of defeat and dragging performances out of those alongside him that they probably did not believe were possible.
Ronaldo has picked up that baton and run with it and will feel that, with questions already being asked of how long he will be sticking around at Old Trafford, he has at least one more documentary-worthy fairytale left him.
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