Gareth Bale has claimed that Jack Grealish has what it takes to take Lionel Messi’s place among one of the top talents in Europe.
After spending two years at Paris Saint-Germain, the legendary Argentine has left European football to start a new chapter in America with Inter Miami.
With the departure of Messi from Europe’s top leagues, this has since led to one former player, who has had significant success at one of the biggest clubs in the world, sharing his thoughts on who could become one of the high-level players in Europe.
Bale highlights Grealish to become a top player
Speaking on BT Sport, Bale said this about Grealish when asked who could be the one to take Messi’s place as a top figure in Europe.
He said: “[Erling] Haaland is obviously on fire, he’s done well at all the clubs he’s been at. Obviously, more talent will go through.
“In the Premier League, [Marcus] Rashford’s coming through, Grealish, [Phil] Foden, there’s a lot of good players coming through, it’s the same in any sport, there’s a transition period and people will just naturally take over.”
Since joining Manchester City back in 2021 from Aston Villa in a deal worth a then-British record fee of £100m, the winger has gone on to make 88 appearances for the club across all competitions, scoring 11 goals and providing 15 assists in the process.
Bearing in mind how Messi scored 32 goals and delivered 35 assists in 75 appearances for PSG, Grealish may need to become more consistent in terms of his goal contributions if he wants to hit the 35-year-old’s very high level.
However, the Englishman’s overall performance throughout City’s latest title-winning Premier League campaign showed how impressive he is as Kevin De Bruyne (7.58/10) and Erling Haaland (7.54/10) were the only outfield players at the club to end the season with higher ratings than Grealish (7.33).
Moving forward, if the attacker can continue to deliver strong performances for the Citizens, he’ll put himself in the conversation as one of Europe’s top players.
