Carlo Ancelotti has said Federico Valverde reminds him of Steven Gerrard, backing the Real Madrid midfielder to become an even better player than the Liverpool legend.
Gerrard, who is manager of Aston Villa, won the Champions League, the UEFA Cup and two FA Cups during a 17-year career at Liverpool and won 114 England caps, playing at six major international tournaments.
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His former Madrid and Uruguay teammate Luis Suarez first made the comparison with Valverde, 24 — who is in the best form of his Madrid career, scoring in his last three club games — in an interview with the newspaper Marca on Saturday.
“I agree [with Suarez], yes,” Ancelotti said when asked about the comparison in his news conference ahead of Madrid’s LaLiga clash with Osasuna.
“[Valverde] has a lot of the same things that Gerrard had. It’s good for him to be compared with a player who had that success. Federico has everything to get to Gerrard’s level, and even more.”
Valverde joined Madrid as a teenager from Penarol in 2016, and initially featured for reserve team Castilla before making his first team debut in 2018.
