Rangers star Joe Aribo compared to Cristiano Ronaldo by ex-mentor
Rangers’ pragmatic midfielder Joe Aribo has been compared to footballing legend Cristiano Ronaldo by his former grassroots mentor Harry Hudson.
The Nigerian has been one of Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s very best players this season having helped the Light Blues to the Europa League round of 16 and a Scottish Premiership title challenge.
Hudson, the founder of the Kinetic Foundation in which Aribo started his career, heaped praise on the 25-year-old for how he handles himself off the football pitch.
“In terms of role models, it’s good to have people like Joe who don’t always post about cars, holidays and all the material things,” Hudson said to Football Scotland.
“He’s very religious, talks about God and being grounded. That’s really important because most of their role models have been people like Ronaldo, Benzema and unfortunately people like Greenwood. They’re not always the best people to look up to.
“I can’t have any claim on helping him. He was always a very quiet and very nice young man and that’s credit to his upbringing.
“Hopefully, along the way, we might have helped but Joe was always a lovely young man. I don’t know what I would do if I was all of a sudden getting £5k a week at 18. It’s difficult.”
More like him
If van Bronckhorst needs the template player to be searching for in the upcoming summer transfer window, then Aribo is that template.
Not only is he one of the best players in the entire division, and subsequently country, but the way he goes about his business away from football is something every player should aspire to.
How long his future is at Ibrox we’re yet to find out but if he does leave the club, the boss needs to be on the lookout for another person like him more than a similar player.
Another midfielder who plays like Aribo does is not that hard to find these days and Rangers will be able to pluck one from almost anywhere they like given their stature in the game.
The person is much more difficult to replace and the club may not know what kind of bloke they’ve got their hands on until he walks through the door.
In other Rangers news, van Bronckhorst has confirmed that one of his star signings will be on the bench for tomorrow’s Europa League tie against Red Star Belgrade.