Real Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo may be struggling for form right now, but everything Marco Asensio touches is turning to gold at the moment.

Ahead of Sunday night's game against Las Palmas, the 21-year-old had scored three goals and assisted a further two in seven starts.

He's widely regarded as the future of Real Madrid and Ronaldo believes he could even be the heir to his - and Lionel Messi's - throne as the world's best player.

"A very good question," Ronaldo said when asked who can succeed him recently. "I see some with great potential: Asensio, Mbappe, Neymar, Dembele, Hazard, Rashford and some others.

"In the next generation there are at least 10 players with very, very great potential."

Zinedine Zidane is similarly a huge fan of the young Spaniard, who claims his manager once told him he has the best left foot he's seen since Messi.

"Zidane told me that since Messi, he had never seen a left foot like mine," Asensio told COPE. "I was a little impressed, because Messi is a piece of a footballer."

That's some praise from Zidane, but if evidence was needed of why Asensio's left foot is on par with Messi's, he provided it against Las Palmas.

In the 56th minute, with Real leading 1-0 through Casemiro, Asensio scored one of the best half volleys you're ever likely to see.

From a corner, Las Palmas' goalkeeper punched the ball out straight to the attacking midfielder, who rifled an unstoppable strike into the top-left corner. Check it out below.

ASENSIO STUNNER

My word, what a goal. As you can probably guess, Asensio's wonder strike sent football fans crazy on Twitter, with some saying it's already Goal of the Season.

TWITTER REACTS