Below is a performance by a 19 year old cristiano ronaldo to rival any individual performance by any teenage sensation In arguably one of the most devastating individual performances by any teenager he orchestrated a total massacre of the Russian national football team thrashing them 7-1(the biggest defeat in their history to date ) C.Ronaldo's contribution was 2 goals including 1 golazo+ 2 assists +1 pre assist and was an absolute menace on the flank tormenting Russian defenders with his dribbling and array of tricks.
I still don’t understand how this man’s dribbling ability deteriorated during his prime. He was a great dribbler(not legendary or unique, but pretty good) from 2003-10, but declined heavily after 2009-10 season. It’s crazy how his primary asset declined during his peak.
How was Modrić doing till 24, how was Rakitić doing till 24, Zidane, etc? Midfielders peak in late 20s opposed to flamboyant wingers therefore their recognition gets later on. Odegaard is surprisingly still 19 years old and he had a very good season in Heerenveen finishing 8th, proved by the fact, that both, sofascore and whoscored, put Odegaard as a, statistically, the best performer in Heerenven last season: https://www.sofascore.com/hr/turnir/nogomet/netherlands/eredivisie/37 https://www.whoscored.com/Teams/287/Show/Netherlands-SC-Heerenveen In overall in Eredivisie, he varies from a top 10-15 performer, statistically, which definitely has some significance cuze such statistics heavily favor winning teams (which Heerenveen isnt) and attackers. So i'd say he is doing fine, just that you dont hear it in medias, which is good thing. However, the greatest challenge in his career is yet to come, which is making a step towards world class, something that Kovacic, for example, is failing to do.. At this point he proved to be a world class talent, but still, as in Odegaard's case, the biggest challenge is yet to come. He is comparable to 2007 Messi and now, but the thing about Messi is that ke kept drastically improving at that point.. I found it funny that you had to wait almost a year to go into "told you so" mode... i bet you were hoping he would do it vs Real this season, but he completely failed under pressure (twice) so youve kept your mouth shut till, well, till he again benefited from playing in the most dominant team in a tournament where, for a majority of a time, he just puts a cherry on the top.
Only two players that I've seen play at that age can be mentioned as the best at that age: Cruijff at Ajax and El Fenomeno Ronaldo at PSV. The rest doesnot even come close to them. That said I havenot seen Maradona play as a 16-18 year old, so I cannot judge him.
By the time Emre Belözoğlu's turned 19, he had already played 70 games for Galatasaray and scored 6 goals (all competitions). He won the Turkish league twice during that time. Since he isn't a forward, his performances shouldn't be judged on the number of goals scored, but it would be interesting to see his assist stats between 1996-1999.
Rooney had insane hormonal levels as a youth. His pace and power were unbelievable. Clearly worthy of a mention.
he could have been better. yet he had to sacrifice his abilities for ronaldo. just rewatch any manu 2007-2009 games, you would feel bad for rooney