Comparisons between Jose Mourinho and Cristiano Ronaldo might seem very natural. They’re both very confident Portuguese men who have achieved tremendous success in football, even winning a few trophies together at Real Madrid. But it seems in their separation from one another, they’re becoming even more alike.

In recent weeks, the two men have been saying remarkably similar things about themselves — namely how they both see themselves as defiant outsiders.

Cristiano Ronaldo: “In football I do not have a lot of friends … most of the time I am alone. I consider myself to be an isolated person … disconnected from the world.” (NBC Sports)

Jose Mourinho: “I don’t have many friends in the football world.” (Irish Times)

Cristiano Ronaldo: “In my mind, I’m always the best. I don’t care what people think, what they say. In my mind, not just this year but always, I’m always the best.” (BBC)

Jose Mourinho: “I’m not a politician, I’m not a PR, I don’t care what people think about me. I don’t, you know, I’m just what I am.” (Irish Times)

Then there’s Cristiano’s answer to who will win this year’s Ballon d’Or. From the Guardian:

“To be honest I think Messi is going to win this year because this kind of trophy, it depends on votes,” he said on an appearance on ITV’s The Jonathan Ross Show, which will be aired on Saturday night.

“You win competitions, you win the Champions League you win the league in terms of individual. I did probably the best season of my career which is good and I was the highest scorer in Europe [but] it’s all about votes, it’s difficult and to be honest I’m not very worried about that because as I said many times, I never thought I’d win three times to be honest.”

Note how he says “it’s all about votes,” which is another way of saying it’s just a popularity contest and if Messi does win, it’s not because he deserved it more, just that he’s more popular with voters (those football people that Cristiano isn’t friends with). Again, this is textbook Mourinho, who has spoken about how he’s not a popularity contest guy, either (Mourinho hasn’t attended the Ballon d’Or gala since he lost the Coach of the Year vote in 2012, under what he claims were dubious circumstances).

Basically what I’m saying is: don’t be surprised if Cristiano starts insulting Arsene Wenger on a weekly basis before too long.