Scour any football forum and you are bound to find a thread from the past year or more debating the topic of whether Cristiano Ronaldo is overrated. This discussion is likely to have sparked from the outcry from United fans following UEFA and FIFA’s decision to crown Milan’s Kaka as the Player of the Year.
Whilst Kaka had a phenomenal season in Europe, he contributed little to Milan’s failing domestic season. When you consider the emphasis tends to always be put on the Champions League ahead of domestic leagues, coupled with the fact players in England rarely scoop the awards ahead of players in La Liga and Serie A, then it was no real surprise Ronaldo lost out.
As I wrote before the Ballon d’Or was announced, the fact that Ronaldo scored more goals and had double the assists of Kaka was never going to be taken in to consideration. Just 5 players from the English league have scooped the award since its origination, in comparison to the 17 from Spain and 12 from Italy. The last time a United player was deemed to be the best player going was in 1968, George Best. The last time a player from our league won it was 2001, when Michael Owen was given the award, before which, it was Kevin Keegan in 1979.
However, United fans strongly argued his case, and this was often met by frustrated reactions from our rivals. The talk of no end product died down last season, when he finished the season as the second highest scorer in the Premiership, but it was only up until recently that the majority of fans conceded in the argument concerning Ronaldo being overrated.
At the end of January, Sir Alex Ferguson talked about Ronaldo and his great goalscoring record this season. “With Ronaldo having scored 25 goals already there is the potential for him to score 30 this season, without question,” he said. “He’s not that far off and has a strong chance. I’m not sure that he is capable of scoring 30 league goals, though. I think that is a different matter entirely. Achieving that would be more difficult and it’s a big ask, but if he does manage it, I’ll pay him more money!”
Ronaldo scored his 30th goal of the season last night against Lyon, in his 30th game of the season, a record any World class striker would be pleased to boast of. With 10 league games left to play, Ronaldo is just 9 goals short of 30 goals, and the winger claims there is more to come.
“My colleagues help me a lot,” he said. “The most important thing is to win games and trophies. I feel fine, I am in good shape and getting vital goals. I want to score more and help the side.”
Can we now safely say Ronaldo is the best player in the World? Do you think he’ll hit 30 league goals by May?
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who is better ?
Sure – that’s why he is premierships top scorer – and joint top scorer in the champions league so far. And all that from a WINGER, and not an out and out striker.
No doubting he is the best, with Kaka way behind the likes of Messi and Rooney, never mind Ronaldo.
It suited everyone that wasn’t English that Kaka had a reasonable two games against a severeley defensively weakened United team in last season’s Champions League.
It allowed them to switch the focus away from Ronaldo who’s fabulous skills leave a bad taste in the mouths of continental players, managers and UEFA officials alike.
This season his abilities have overshadowed every other player to such an extent that we are seeing some ‘bandwagon jumping’ from the Continentals. Even hardliners such as the Italians are making sure they get their names alongside praise of Cristiano – instead of last season’s unjustified and unwarranted assassination of his obvious credentials for claim to World’s best player.
If this lad can keep it up he is going to be the best player this modern age has ever seen – far better than the (slightly)overated Pele and the immensley talented but sadly misguided Best.
A Cruyff on anphetamin who scores twice as many goals as Maradona and all under the watchful eye and guidance of SAF – it doesn’t get any better!!
Ronaldo IS the best in the world there is no doubt about that. You have to remember that for him to be the best it takes the whole team to support him and thats exactly whats happened.
My only wish is that Mr Rooney would be the worlds number two!! Don’t get me wrong, we are not the same team without him..I Just wish he would figure out where he left his shooting boots
Yes, Ronaldo’s the best at present… Why? Because he’s been consistently good for the last year and a half now. As a viewer of a fair bit of Spanish football, I reckon Messi runs him close, but he seems to drift in and out of form (and now he’s out for six weeks with hamstring-knack)… Otherwise, no-one is close to these two… Kaka’s been poor by his high standards this season… ditto Ronaldinho. And to think Ronnie & Messi are barely into their 20s… Other good youngsters? As well as our own Rooney and Anderson, there’s Lyon’s Benzema and Ben Arfa, Barca’s Giovanni Dos Santos and Bojan… to name but a few…
Who knows if he is the best in the world, and who cares? If he can crack ion 30 goals a season and entertain in the united tradition, he is the best in my book….don’t really care about anyone elses view!
what?! sell the one-trick pony. An over-rated ****, give me Reyes any day of the week, and the day after too.
Ronaldo will definitely get the Player of the Year award this time round. Two events from last night make this almost certain. Firstly, Arsenal knocking out Milan means that Kaka can’t win it with a handful of great European performances like last year. Secondly, and sadly, Messi picked up a nasty injury that will probably mean he misses the business end of the season. And then there’s the European Championships where Ronaldo will surely shine for Portugal.
Reyes? haha.
I don’t think there is a better player than Ronaldo in the world right now. Not to say he is the best. However, I think in the last month or two he has taken a few steps back and like last night, I was begging for him to pass earlier and not try to do it all by himself, I kept hoping Nani would get it because although he has an equal arsenal of tricks he passes and crosses the ball a lot more.
I hope in the final stage of the season, Ronaldo puts the teams goals before his goal record and to me that would be the best thing he could do because when he is assisting as much as being a one man show he is unstoppable and United are too.
Tom F – I think you’re being somewhat unfair in suggesting that CR7 “puts the teams goals before his goal record”. Is it really his fault that Wayne Rooney is so inept in front of goal ? Over the past ten weeks, Rooney has been playing terrific football with one glaring exception – he just doesn’t bulge the old onion basket enough. Ronaldo, on the other hand, is a very lethal finisher. I’d imagine that if there was a relevant statistic to compare “scoring chances” and “goals scored” that Ronaldo would come out far ahead; so would Tevez. This is not to diss Rooney but it is to state an obvious weakness in his game – and it seems unfair to suggest that Ronaldo’s magnificent scoring record is the result of greed and selfishness. I can only think of one example of that – last year when Rooney and Ronaldo ran the length of the pitch and Ronaldo did NOT pass the ball to an open Rooney but shot himself; otherwise, he seems quite willing to pass it around. I do agree, however, with your follow-up statement that “the best thing he (CR7) could do … is assisting as much as being a one man show”. For that to happen, his colleagues need to be more accurate in THEIR shooting.
I would have to agree with you Tom F, to a degree, Ronaldo does put his self indulgence ahead of the team. Last night, despite scoring, he did cough up the ball too much trying to be tricky and smart. If he played fundamental football a bit more, he’d be even better. As for Ronney not scoring enough for some, what does that have to do with Ronaldo being a show-boater? I didn’t see alot of Ronaldo to Rooney passing last night.
CR7 has been in magnificent form for us over the past two seasons, this definitely warrants a place on the list of world’s best. However I still get the nagging feeling hes trying way too hard in the big games. His impact in our crunch games is usually negligible even though he contributes an assist here or a goal there. I know it sounds ridiculous to slate him for that but those are the high standards of which best in the world are judged against. When he learns that top class opposition aren’t fooled by stepovers or that great teams can counter raw blinding pace better than most EPL teams then I think he will blossom. If he can learn to mix both his skill and speed with on pitch awareness and passing then there is no doubt he will be the best in the world.
R & R…Rolls Royce ..Rooney Ronaldo. They each have their part to play and the complement each other much more than is apparent. Those two are a handfull. One never knows what tey are going to come up with next! Ronaldo is the very best player in the planet. Reyes who???
He’s been the world BEST player for the past year. Absolutely no question about it. If Ronaldo doesn’t win the crown this year I’ll shit a brick on panel that hands out the awards…
Yeh yeh. Of course Ronaldo is shite. Only a shitty player will score 30 gls in 30 matches for a club like United… Jerks – LOL
although I think Ronaldo still has to learn in big games that a quick pass can sometimes be more effective than an eyecatching trick, you would still have to say that his record in the Premiership, Champions League and International qualifiers compared to his rivals makes him the best around at the minute.
What other player can you name that can seriously compare with him. Last year Kaka and Messi were worthy challengers but only Ronaldo has repeated it again this year although Messi has been in good form but has missed a fair chunk of the season through injury. Alot of people think that these awards are biased against the EPL teams, if Ronaldo does not get the award this year it will be the biggest farce in the awards history and as much as I want Ronaldo to get it, Fabregas would also merit more of a shout than any body in Spain or Itally
smarties- you a united fan? a gooner? either way, you were cracking jokes about preferring Reyes right?? sheesh- reyes was billed as Arsenal’s latest wonder kid, world class and all that crap- but what did he ever do??
i think ronaldo is certainly one of the best forward players in the world. What Kaka has is this glide and the way he can pick a pass. Ronaldo often looses the ball in one on ones. BUt as some1 pointed out, who cares if he wins best player in the world. If he scores 30+ and is the 10th best player, ill still be happy.