Valencia right-back Joao Pereira insists that the best way to stop Cristiano Ronaldo is to sign him for €100m.
The Portuguese international makes his La Liga debut on Sunday when Los Che take on Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu and is aware that he will have his work cut out in stopping countryman Ronaldo.
Pereira, signed from Sporting for €3.6m over the summer, knows the former Manchester United player from their time together with the national squad and believes he has found the secret of how to prevent him from scoring.
“Stop him? The best way to do that is to have €100m and sign him for your own team,” joked Pereira in an interview with AS.
“As I don’t have it then it will have to be done with a mixture of luck and concentration, lots of it, but we can do it. He is one of the best in the world and has a lot of things at his disposal.
“But it’s true we have been training in one-on-one situations.”
Portugal will be well represented in the Bernabeu with players such as Pepe, Ronaldo, Fabio Coentrao and Ricardo Costa, and Pereira also spoke of the esteem with which Madrid boss Jose Mourinho is held in his own country.
“In Portugal he is considered the best in the world because wherever he goes he wins everything.
“Here in Spain perhaps he has to win the Champions League with Real Madrid to earn the respect of everybody, although I hope he doesn’t do it this year because we are also in the competition and have the right to compete for the title.”
The 28-year-old revealed he had spoken to Madrid defender Pepe before opting to move to Mestalla and try his luck in La Liga.
“We spoke a lot about the Spanish League and about the differences between football in Portugal and Spain.
“Here it is more competitive and the teams are better. In Portugal there are few teams that really fight,” he declared.
