Declan Rice is one of the best midfield players in the Premier League.

The England international was a key cog in this Arsenal side last season, and many had him down as their Player of the Year in the Premier League.

Rice has been immense since joining Arsenal, but, according to Nani, there’s a midfielder who has been linked with Arsenal who is even better than the £105m man.

Nani says Joao Palhinha is better than Declan Rice

Speaking to TalkSPORT on TikTok, Nani was asked to pick between Joao Palhinha and Declan Rice as he compared the current Portugal team to the England squad.

Nani was rather balanced in most of his selections between Portugal and England players, picking a fair mix of his fellow countrymen and members of the Three Lions squad.

Interestingly, Nani picked Palhinha over Rice, and this comes after Arsenal were strongly linked with a move for the Fulham star.

Unfortunately, Arsenal seem to have let the opportunity to sign Palhinha pass them by.

Joao Palhinha is moving to Bayern Munich

Arsenal may have been linked to Palhinha, but the race to sign the Portugal star has been won by Bayern Munich.

Indeed, 12 months on from a failed deadline day move to Bavaria, Palhinha has now agreed a deal to join the German giants.

Palhinha is certainly worthy of this type of transfer after two fantastic years with Fulham, and now, he will hopefully be able to establish himself truly as one of the best holding midfield players on the planet.

Nani’s claim that Palhinha is better than Rice will be controversial, but the Fulham star will have a chance to prove that he is up there with the best in the world once he joins Bayern Munich and plays for a team challenging for the very biggest honours in the game.

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