Cristiano Ronaldo may have had a lackluster start to his latest FIFA World Cup appearance, but he silenced critics with a much more impactful performance in his follow-up match.
After failing to score in his squad’s opening draw against DR Congo, Ronaldo woke up against Uzbekistan, scoring within the match’s first six minutes, and then again, 39 minutes in. He attempted to record a hat trick but was unable to connect on his third goal in the second half of a dominant 5-0 win.
And the recent performance impressed Fox Sports analyst and international football legend Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who officially moved Ronaldo onto his updated “King of the Jungle” list. Ibrahhimovic took United States Men’s National Team star Folarin Balogun out of the No. 10 spot, replacing him with Ronaldo.
“The one who moves out from the list is Balogun, but Balogun has a game today; he might come back to the top 10,” Ibrahimovic said, without giving further discussion of Ronaldo.
England’s Harry Kane dropped down to the No. 7 spot due to an underwhelming performance in his team’s 0-0 draw against Ghana earlier this week.
In addition to that movement, three players moved up a spot each on the list. France’s Kylian Mbappe moved to No. 3, followed by Norway’s Erling Haaland and Brazil’s Vinicius Jr., each of whom had standout performances in recent games.
All-time great Lionel Messi of Argentina remained at the top of the list, below only Ibrahimovic, who says he is the best performer of them all. Messi scored another two goals in Argentina’s win over Austria, after a hat trick in his team’s opener.
Ronaldo made history earlier this week, becoming the first player to score in six different World Cup appearances. He also had goals in 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2022. That’s something not even Lionel Messi has accomplished, as he only scored in five of his six appearances.
While Ibrahimovic said that Balogun could re-enter his top 10 list, that’s unlikely, due to the fact that the USMNT is not playing him, along with several other key members of the roster. They face Turkiye on Thursday evening, but have already won their group and qualified for the Knockout Phase, so playing it safe with key players makes sense.
However, Christian Pulisic could participate in the game after being unavailable in his team’s previous win over Australia due to recovering from an injury suffered in their opener. Depending on what Pulisic does on the pitch, it’s not hard to fathom he could quickly become one of the members of Ibrahimovic’s “King of the Jungle” with a strong performance.