Why Choupo-Moting is the perfect antidote to Ronaldo at Man Utd

FT Desk

• 4 Nov 2022 14:11 GMT
• 3 min read

Manchester United have been linked with a surprise move for Bayern Munich striker Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting. The Cameroonian would be the perfect antidote to Cristiano Ronaldo at Old Trafford.

Choupo-Moting's career could hardly stand in starker contrast to Ronaldo's. When Ronaldo fired Real Madrid to their third consecutive Champions League in 2018 with 15 goals from 13 games, Choupo-Moting was getting relegated with Stoke having hit five in 30 in the Premier League.

Ronaldo was a €94 million player when he swapped Manchester United for Madrid in 2009, when Choupo-Moting went out on loan to Nuremberg from Hamburg.

READ: Man Utd target Stoke flop to replace Cristiano Ronaldo

But in recent seasons, Ronaldo has gone from a questionable move to Juventus in terms of outlay versus reward for the club, to what has become positively disastrous return to United, with Erik ten Hag all but freezing him out of the first-team picture.

Choupo-Moting has since played for Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich, and his recent form for the latter means they are talking about the Barcelona-bound Robert Lewandowski less and less at the Allianz Arena.

But United need a striker, and Choupo-Moting is reportedly the latest player they have targeted. Ronaldo has three goals this season; Choupo-moting has three in his last three games, and if further evidence was needed for the Red Devils shortfall up front, consider that Ten Hag threw Harry Maguire on as a striker against Real Sociedad on Thursday.

READ: Ten Hag sent a blistering message to Man Utd board with Maguire decision

A good dressing-room fit

Choupo-Moting may be outperforming Ronaldo on the field this season, but he is also a far humbler character off it. Take his attitude to competing for a pace in the PSG attack in his two years in Paris.

"We're like friends," he said at the time. "I think we have the best attack in the world, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar are among the five best players. But it's also a motivation. I don't want to 'steal their place' but to bring something."

Ten Hag could drop Choupo-Moting and not run the risk of him leaving the stadium early. Even if he was relegated with Stoke in 2018, he would be better fit for United's squad today than Ronaldo is.