Ed van Steijn, who scouted Cristiano Ronaldo for Manchester United, admits he is hugely impressed with PSV Eindhoven winger Memphis Depay, and even prefers him over the Portuguese at the same stage in his career.
The Netherlands international has been strongly linked with following in Ronaldo's footsteps by moving to Old Trafford, although he did sign a new deal with PSV last summer to banish transfer speculation for this season at least.
Manchester United would be well served by Depay, Van Steijn clearly feels, rating the young winger even above Ronaldo at the same age.
Indeed, Van Steijn believes it took Ronaldo some time to eliminate mistakes from his game, while Depay is better formed.
"If I compare him to a young Cristiano Ronaldo at the time, then Depay has more strings to his bow. I like him better", the scout told Dutch daily the Algemeen Dagblad.
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"Ronaldo did even the same things wrong at Manchester United that he did when he was 17", Van Steijn added.
Depay has been on fire for PSV so far this season, scoring 16 goals in 22 Eredivisie games and putting the Rotterdam side squarely on course to capture the Dutch crown.
He also hit six goals in nine games in PSV's Europa League campaign, which was ended by Andre Villas-Boas' Zenit St. Petersburg side last month.
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