Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane has waxed lyrical about 20-year-old Celtic striker Moussa Dembele, claiming his fellow Frenchman should remain at Parkhead in order to develop into a world class player.
The Champions League winners were reported to be scouting Dembele in the summer, prior to his move to Glasgow, and are now monitoring his progress again along with Bayern Munich, Arsenal and others.
Dembele has netted four goals against Rangers alone already this season, and Zidane believes it's goals of this calibre which indicate that Dembele is a bona fide future star of the sport. The 44-year-old compared Dembele with former Madrid teammates Ronaldo and Raul, along with compatriot Thierry Henry:
Dembele is one of the most talked about young strikers in Europe at the moment but it has not surprised me at all – I always saw that.
He isn’t just scoring goals, he is scoring big goals, important goals like the one against Rangers. That to me is always the sign of a great player.
I have played with the greatest strikers, Ronaldo, Henry, Raul, and you knew on the biggest occasions they would win you games – and Dembele is already showing that.
It was great for him to score his goals against Manchester City, not just for the result but for him personally. He will now go into games knowing he can score goals against the best clubs and that confidence does everything for a player of that age. I hope he can score more goals while Celtic remain in The Champions League, it will be good for him.
And Zidane maintains that if Dembele is to continue developing at the rate he has shown in recent months, there's only one club for him - for the foreseeable future at least:
I do understand now that the biggest clubs in Europe are being linked with him and that will be his destination eventually – but my advice now is ignore it all.
He can progress well at Celtic, at a great club who are in Europe, and under a very good coach. I know his time will come but he needs to make good decisions – and his next at least one or two seasons should be with Celtic.
