Angel Di Maria has advised Alejandro Garnacho to adopt Lionel Messi’s celebratory style over Cristiano Ronaldo’s, despite Di Maria considering Ronaldo as his hero.
The Argentine forward frequently replicates Messi’s celebrations after scoring, deviating from Garnacho’s usual ‘SIU’ gesture inspired by Ronaldo.
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Not limiting himself to one emulation, the 19-year-old has also replicated Ronaldo’s ‘sleeping’ celebration, closing his eyes and interlocking his hands over his chest.
Former United star Di Maria has taken exception to that and believes Garnacho should be following Messi’s lead instead. Speaking to Ole, he said: “The only thing I wouldn’t do is celebrate Cristiano. I would score the goal and I would do like Messi does. I’ll stick with that.”
Despite having only one small criticism, Di Maria remains a big fan of Garnacho and believes he will only improve with time.
He added: “He is a very fast player, he has incredible ability. He is going to gain it with experience and coming to the national team, it is a place where you learn a lot and continue to improve.
“It helped me a lot to grow technically in every way, it is spectacular. I think he will grow with experience as well. When I was young I wanted to make the play 30 times in the game.
“Over the years you realize that if you do it 10, but you do it better, it’s worth it. He has a lot of future, a very big future. It depends on him, on his head, to be able to handle it. I don’t have much to say, there’s a reason he’s playing for Manchester United.”
Di Maria is not the only person to have criticised Garnacho for his Ronaldo-inspired celebrations.
Former Juventus and Barcelona star Arturo Vidal tore into the United starlet for going through with the celebration in the aftermath of his goal of the season contender against Everton this season.
He said: “The only bad thing or what I didn’t understand is why he celebrates like Cristiano? He has to make his own name. He is an already great player. It’s good that he is his idol, respect for that, but then he has to make his name.
“How are you going to celebrate a goal and remember it? I don’t know, celebrate it another way. But it was a great goal, it was a great goal.”
