Cristiano Ronaldo

boromike85 said:
Messi is better. He is better individually and he is a far better team member. Look at Ronaldo's free kick record at Juventus. He is rubbish at them but insists on taking them all. He does things that make him look better instead of what is best for the team. He is selfish. That selfishness gets him a lot of goals, and headlines but it shows he is willing to sacrifice what is best for the team in favour of himself.

Also, look at Messi's free kick record. Can you really be considered the GOAT if you can't even put the ball where you want it to go consistently?

Technically, Messi is just on another planet to everyone else. Ronaldo has the physical attributes and the desire but he isn't technically as good. I'm not saying he isn't a fantastic player, he definitely is and there would be teams/situations that suit him more than Messi but Messi just sets the bar so high.

I'd also agree that Ronaldo isn't entertaining. For me that means they run with the ball. Ronaldo hasn't really done that since he was a teenager. That's why players like Juninho and Traore are my favourites to watch. I love nothing more than seeing a player make a top quality defender look silly by leaving them behind.
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Nailed it, dribbling is the one for me. It’s why I much prefer players of that ilk aswell. I absolutely love Traore aswell.
 
Laughing said:
Borobuddha, I am not sure he is a narcassist. He does an awful lot for charity and I believe works incredibly hard on the training field. It is no accident he is one of the best players in the world, ever. He does come across as a snidey tw@t though. I cannot help but dislike him, even knowing all I do about him.
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Credit where it's due, he does a lot of good work outside football. But he's still definitely a narcissist. Being one doesn't prevent him doing those things.
 
For years I was in the Messi camp, he is magical. However, in the last year or so I have moved to the dark side and believe Ronaldo has the edge over their careers now and deserves the plaudits. He delivers on every level club or country.

Messi often disappoints for Argentina whenever I have watched their games. I accept in part that is down to some odd management at times and some lesser players around him but yep I am in the Ronaldo camp. To think he was a player we were looking at when UTD jumped in ahead of us.

I do still look fondly at the time when he was brought down to earth, just in front of me, by a young James Morrison.
 
So this debate has been done to death, and I have a massive Barcelona bias so I'm always going to be pro Messi but here's what I think:
Ronaldo is a more "complete" player. He has better strength, better heading ability and arguably even better speed. He's got more to his game.
Messi is simply a joyful player to watch, poetry in motion. Also as a team mate he's head and shoulders above Ronaldo. I know it happened at least once where he was not only the top goal scorer in la ligations but also had the most assists, something Ronaldo wouldn't have dreamed of chasing.

Whichever side of the debate you stand on we can count ourselves lucky that we have had two of the greatest in the game playing at the same time and often against each other. Both truly exceptional players
 
I think they've both underperformed in major international tournaments to be fair. The Ronaldo camp will point to the euro championship win, but he barely played in the final. He was decent throughout the tournament, but didn't exactly set it slight.

Very similar to Messi in the world cup 2014. With a bit of luck (and his teammates being able to take decent chances) Argentina would have won and people would be claiming it meant Messi was indisputably the best.
 
Borobarmy said:
I guess the Proof in the pudding is whether Messi could’ve done it around Europe in challenging leagues . Guess we’ll never know
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This link tells you everything you ever need to know about whether Messi could cut it in the biggest league. He has scored 26 goals in just 34 games against the Premier League top six. Ronaldo has only 28 goals despite playing 79 games.

https://michelacosta.com/en/lionel-messi-and-cristiano-ronaldo-against-english-clubs/

If we use Messi's 26 goals in 34 games (76%) as a proxy he would have scored at least 29 goals in a 38 game season. Safe to say if he played in the Premier League week in week out against some of the dross towards the bottom of the league he'd have consistently smashed the PL record for most goals in a season, and within 6/7 years in the league would have surpassed Shearer's scoring record of 260.
 
anonn said:
The thing with this is, its not like Ronaldo has gone around Europe playing for smaller clubs and dragged them to greatness. He has played in a fantastic United team, arguably the biggest club in the world in Real Madrid and then a Juve team who have won the league every year since 2011.
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He dragged an average Portugal team to greatness
 
coluka said:
For years I was in the Messi camp, he is magical. However, in the last year or so I have moved to the dark side and believe Ronaldo has the edge over their careers now and deserves the plaudits. He delivers on every level club or country.
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Same as me, think it was with the dives against Boro that just made me hate Ronaldo.. He left England and we got relegated so i wasn't really that fussed until that game vs Sweden when he dragged Portugal through to the world cup. Then the big UCL goals winning 4 in 5 year for me just put him above Messi.
 
GazC_MFC said:
He dragged an average Portugal team to greatness
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They won one game in regular time in the entire Euros, finished third in their group and he went off injured after 20 minutes in the final.

He didn't drag them anywhere, they were a poor team who got through because of penalties and a stupid tournament structure, and the decisive goals were almost all from other players.

He scored 2 goals against Hungary in the group stage, a game they didn't win, and then 1 against Wales in the 7 matches of the tournament as their main player, that's not impressive.
 
BoroBen92 said:
They won one game in regular time in the entire Euros, finished third in their group and he went off injured after 20 minutes in the final.

He didn't drag them anywhere, they were a poor team who got through because of penalties and a stupid tournament structure, and the decisive goals were almost all from other players.

He scored 2 goals against Hungary in the group stage, a game they didn't win, and then 1 against Wales in the 7 matches of the tournament as their main player, that's not impressive.
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They won the competition within the rules. A wins a win. His mentality as a born winner dragged them through it, that was clear to see.

History books will say Portugal with ronaldo won a major international trophy
 
GazC_MFC said:
They won the competition within the rules. A wins a win. His mentality as a born winner dragged them through it, that was clear to see.

History books will say Portugal with ronaldo won a major international trophy
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Nah, unless you're going to claim that him trying to manage from the sideline in the final is why they won.
He's won the Euros, there's no taking that away from him, but they didn't win it because of him, it's disrespectful to the players who actually scored the winning goals to claim that.

There are plenty of tournaments and matches where you can rightly argue that Ronaldo was the the difference, I don't think that the 2016 Euros is one of them.
 
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BoroBen92 said:
Nah, unless you're going to claim that him trying to manage from the sideline in the final is why they won.
He's won the Euros, there's no taking that away from him, but they didn't win it because of him, it's disrespectful to the players who actually scored the winning goals to claim that.

There are plenty of tournaments and matches where you can rightly argue that Ronaldo was the the difference, I don't think that the 2016 Euros is one of them.
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Put it this way, they wouldn’t have won it without him
 
festa5 said:
Except isn't that pretty much exactly what they did in the final?
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I did also dislike him for his antics against the Boro & enjoyed Morrison taking him out but for me, the best ever modern day footballer

Best is my favourite all time mind
 
Block21 said:
Hilarious that people say stuff like guess we will never know what Messi could do in other leagues, have you seen him in the champions league single handledly demolish big English and Italian teams at times. He’s the best ever no question.
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Just go back and watch Maradona highlights and you'll come to your senses 😉
 
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