The
Portuguese picked up his fifth Ballon d'Or award recently and claimed
he is the finest footballer to have lived. But it's simply not the case.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi
Self-belief is important for any top-level sports star. It is fair
to say that Cristiano Ronaldo has plenty of it and after claiming a
fifth Ballon d'Or in early December, the Real Madrid forward declared
himself to be the best player in the history of football.
“I’m the best player in history, in the good moments and the bad ones,”
he told France Football , the magazine that organises the award. “I
respect everyone’s preferences, but I’ve never seen anyone better than
me. I have always thought that.
"No footballer can do the things I can. There’s no player more
complete than me. I play well with both feet, I’m quick, powerful, good
with the head, I score goals, I make assists. There are guys who prefer
Neymar or [Lionel] Messi. But I tell you: there’s no-one more complete
than me."
It is that attitude that has pushed the Portuguese to greater
heights. Certainly, his admirable ambition has changed his life and that
of his entire family, while it has helped Real Madrid to three
Champions League crowns over the past four seasons.
But he is not the best player in history. In fact, he is probably not even the finest footballer to have played for Real Madrid.
When Goal spoke to fans outside the Santiago Bernabeu recently,
not many picked Ronaldo as the best to have turned out for their club ,
though all of them did admit that he is among the finest to have pulled
on the famous white shirt.
Cristiano has more goals than Alfredo Di Stefano, considered by
many to be Madrid's greatest, but the Argentine great led Los Blancos to
five European Cups in the late 1950s and early 1960s and is still
highly rated by many.
"It would be unfair of us if we forgot players like Di Stefano,
who is one of the greats not only at Real Madrid, but in football,"
former Madrid goalkeeper Paco Buyo told Goal recently when asked if
Ronaldo was the best ever at the club. "I think Cristiano is a true Real
Madrid legend for everything he has achieved, but I think it is
difficult to say he is the best player to have passed through the club."
And ex Boca Juniors, River Plate and Argentina goalkeeper Hugo Gatti, who played against Di Stefano, told Goal: "He
was the best. For me, after Pele, who was the best in the world, the
best in history, Alfredo comes next. So the comparison with Cristiano is
difficult."
Another Argentine, Diego Maradona, is often mentioned among the
game's greatest players and when told in an interview that Cristiano
considered himself to be the best ever, the 57-year-old replied: "Tell him to stop taking the p*ss!"
When subsequently asked where he would be in the list if Ronaldo
was the best, he said: "Exactly! That's why I tell him to stop taking
the p*ss!" And pressed on the greatest he had seen, the World Cup winner
added: "From the little that I saw, Alfredo Di Stefano, [Johan] Cruyff
and [Lionel] Messi. Cristiano could be up there too."
In terms of goals, he is. The Portuguese has hit 422 in 415
appearances for Real Madrid, with over 545 strikes in his club career
and a record 79 (in 147 matches) for his national side.
Football has seen many great goalscorers throughout the years;
Jimmy Greaves, Telmo Zarra, Just Fontaine and Gerd Muller among them.
However, those names are seldom mentioned among the best players in
history.
Manchester City right-back Danilo played with Ronaldo for two
seasons at Real Madrid, but said in an interview with Goal : "I always
tell my friends there are three players I've seen do otherworldly things
in training: Neymar, Isco and Marcelo."
And asked about Ronaldo, he replied: "Oh... Cristiano is a player
that wants to score goals, he's a numbers, results guy, it's a little
bit different."
Ronaldo's record of 79 goals for Portugal makes him his nation's
top scorer. However, many Portuguese still believe Eusebio (who passed
away in 2014) to be the country's best-ever player.
The Benfica great, who netted 733 goals in 745 matches in a
spectacular career, hit 41 in 64 games for Portugal. Ronaldo, meanwhile,
took 106 matches to surpass that figure as he reached 43 strikes with a
hat-trick against Northern Ireland in 2013.
“I am saddened because we can’t make that comparison," Eusebio
said on Portuguese television when he was surpassed by Cristiano in
2013. "It’s a mistake because I played (around) 60 matches to score that
amount (41 goals).
“Now, after all these years, someone else scores (that many goals)
but obviously that happens because today it is easier to play some of
these teams. I never got to play against Liechtenstein or Azerbaijan."
Ronaldo, of course, has since helped Portugal to victory at Euro
2016, although even that win came after he limped off in the final
against France. In any case, while he was named the best Portuguese
player of all time by the nation's football federation (FPF) in 2015, he
cannot be considered the finest footballer of his generation.
Because that honour belongs to Messi. Although both men are now
tied on five Ballons d'Or apiece, the only variable by which the two can
really be compared is in their goals. In that respect, it is fairly
even. But in every other facet of the game, be it passing, dribbling,
vision or creating chances, the Argentine is far superior.
“The Ballon d’Or thing is a little tiresome because it has been moved to a different playing field,” Dani Alves told Goal back in 2014 .
“It has moved to the field of opinions and off the field of play. But
if we look at the field of play, I think Leo, for as long as he is
around, will push the rest into second place.
“Moving away from that, perhaps he has less chance. The winner
is often the one who has had the best campaign, or the best publicity
campaign."
Ronaldo has more than that. The Portuguese was decisive last season
as Real Madrid retained the Champions League, scoring 10 goals from the
quarter-finals onwards as Los Blancos beat Bayern Munich, Atletico and
Juventus to win their 12th European Cup.
However, Alves was right in that Messi is better. Since Ronaldo's
arrival at Real in 2009, the Argentine has a superior scoring record and
he hit an unprecedented 91 goals for club and country in 2012.
Even playing often in a deeper role, the 30-year-old has outscored
the Portuguese so far in La Liga in 2017-18 (although Cristiano is ahead
in Europe) and he contributes much more to his side's overall play.
Ronaldo, meanwhile, is something of a goal hanger these days, a player
who shoots on sight.
This season, the 32-year-old averages more than six shots per game
in La Liga, with as many as 12 in the 1-0 loss to Betis. He shoots much
more than Messi at Barca, for example, which helps him to score as many
as he does. And although he has also racked up a fair number of assists,
that is partly due to his proximity to the goal. Rarely does he beat
several players and find a team-mate or produce the kind of
defence-splitting passes that Messi does.
Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane was asked recently if he believed Ronaldo was the best in history and said: "Yes.
There are lots of players who have been very successful in this club,
but no one has achieved what he has, and what he's still going to
achieve."
However, any Real boss knows he will need to praise the Portuguese
to stay in his good books. During his time at the Santiago Bernabeu,
Jose Mourinho often hailed his compatriot, but changed his tune last
year when he said: "For me the top three players in history are Messi, Pele and Maradona."
Messi is often mentioned in the same breath as those two South
American legends, while Ronaldo has fought to compete with the brilliant
Barcelona forward in this era. And the fact he has levelled the
Argentine on five Ballons d'Or is testament to his extraordinary drive
and dedication to be the best he can.
Cristiano will definitely go down as one of the game's greats and
deservedly so. But he is not the best player in the world right now -
however many Ballons d'Ors he wins - and he is certainly not the finest
footballer in history.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
