ARSENAL hero Paul Merson insists Nicolas Anelka was “definitely” destined to become better than Brazil legend Ronaldo Nazario.
Anelka, who underwent a stormy career, joined the Gunners from Paris Saint-Germain in 1997 at the tender age of 17 years old and still managed to turn heads immediately after his arrival.
Merson, who won two titles with the club, spent a few months with the famous striker in north London and was absolutely mesmerised by his talent as he absolutely stood out on the pitch.
The Sky Sports pundit was also left in awe during training as he witnessed the ex-France international dominating notoriously tough defenders in Tony Adams and Steve Bould “every two minutes”.
In fact, the former England international watched the then teenager leaving both veteran centre-backs “on their backside” before beating legendary goalkeeper David Seaman.
Merson told the League of Legends show: “I played with a kid who came over to England and I definitely thought that he was going to be better than the Brazilian Ronaldo – and that was Anelka.
“When he came over, he was about 17 and he was leaving Tony Adams and Steve Bould on their backside every two minutes.
“We used to do this one-on-one where we would stand in between the halfway line and the 18-yard box and the defender would start on the 18-yard line.
“The boss would chip the ball into you and you would have to take on the defender one-on-one and then you’d have to try and beat the goalkeeper. I don’t think he ever missed.
“He managed to get past the defender, whoever he was doing it against, then Dave Seaman would come out and he would go round him like he wasn’t there.
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“I seriously thought that he was going to be the best in the world – and he should have been. He should have been as good as Ronaldo.”
Anelka underwent a nomadic career that saw him leaving Arsenal for Real Madrid only two years after his arrival at Highbury, where he won the Double in 1998 and amassed 28 goals in 90 appearances.
The Frenchman’s stint at the Santiago Bernabeu barely lasted a year and he returned to PSG before coming back to England in 2001 for Liverpool and Manchester City a year later.
In 2005 the now 44-year-old signed for Fenerbahce but returned to the UK for a third time as he was signed by Bolton a year later.
And Anelka found himself at top level once more in 2008 when he put pen to paper on a contract with Chelsea where he won the Premier League as well as two FA Cups until his departure in 2012.
Short stints followed with Shanghai Shenhua, Juventus, West Brom and Mumbai City where he retired in 2015.
