LOL Ronaldo (portugal version) was terrible at the world cup. The 3 biggest names at the time just before the world cup were messi, ronaldo, and rooney. Messi failed to score a single goal, and couldnt take argentina past germany, but at least he had some very good individual performances, ronaldo was simply just hopeless, and rooney was doing some kind of impression of emile heskey
What Thomas Muller doing here? He was no more than a new "klose 06" or "Toto 90" as onetime wonder man at WC! Messi was not as bad in last WC, it was just his shooting horrible
Another thread that actually is Messi v. "CR7" Ronaldo for the 1000th time; BUT w/an interesting twist IMO...
on the basis of what you write this sea of crap??? C.Ronaldo and Messi is definitely better, no doubt than the super overstated George Best. I do not understand why in this forum is the fashion to consider players of the past to force higher than those of present
How about now? 08-13 Barca Messi 266 goals + 111 assists / 262 games Argentina Messi 23 goals + 20 assists / 49 games
because we had watched them all from older to newer generation to rate them more careful. You youngsters just happened to HEAR their name or SEE a few clips of some great in the past. So you guys just JUMP IN and QUICKLY claim the new era players are better! Like you never tasted sugar (made from cane) and quickly claim the "sweetener" is better LOL
I think it's more of a nostalgia really, trying to make yourself feel important and/or more knowledgeable, when actually in real life it's often the opposite. It was so much better, harder when the football still was football, you should have seen it. I see it on every board at least the same amount that of the "newbie" stuff, older fans are often as biased with their opinions than younger ones.
Lack of footage actually works in both ways. It helps older players but also works against them because not every goal or spectacular trapping is filmed. Moreover, often only the World Cup and euro games are saved in entirety. Think about it: how would Cristiano Ronaldo be rated in the past? What impression does he leaves if one would only watch his tournament games? Furthermore, today it is easily said that players are tired after a long season and not fresh any more, which has an effect on trapping, reaction time, footwork, pace etcetera. But this was also the case in the past. Even the best World Cup performers in history were tired before the tournament started. Or they caught an injury which saw them missing big parts of the preparation. Really, even the very best ones met these issues.
IMHO this also must be done on a case-by-case basis: I'll utilse English players by way of comparison so that I don't step on anyone's toes on an international rivalry front. Alan Shearer was undoubtedly a superior "spearhead"-type C-F when compared to, say, Derek Kevan; BUT if you say that that Shearer was clearly a better and more effective No.9 than Tommy Lawton or Nat Lofthouse then you'd better be prepared to make your case...
Are you talking of yourself? or someone else? My view point had nothing to do with nostalgia. In my top rated players there were a bunch of MIXED players from all era's 50,60,70,80, 90 ... There are certain players of last decades that I rated higher than a lot of older generations i.e. Ronaldo, Zidane (90-00s)> Kopa (50) Muller (70) or even Eusebio (60) The reason I did not (YET) rate Messi and CR7 (as HYPED) as many younger fans for they DID NOT (yet) convince or PROVE their great outside their club teams, That's ALL!
100% agree. The whole "let's play up George Best's abilities because it's so sad he didn't live up to his 'enormous potential' and it's so" by the British media is such crap. He was a talented player but is nowhere near one of the best players to have played the game. While I take it with a grain of salt, he himself said, years ago, that CR7 was better than him. And this was before he did the stuff he does now at Madrid. Best doesn't touch Ronaldo or Messi.
Did you know, at WC2010, Maradona said Messi was "better" than himself at same age? But IRONICALLY in last month 2013, Maradona said "Messi was no El Diego" LOL Take both Messi and CR7 OFF the two best teams Barca and Real, they both COMEBACK to GROUND. WHY? they are NOT what you (younger fans) think they are! (a big note: Messi did get much better since late last year though)
I think if you watch this then you might at least consider the possibilty that you could be wrong about that (if C.Ronaldo was showing these abilities what would you be saying about it etc?): I'm not saying I'm 100% correct and you're wrong but just trying to make you understand why people would scoff at Best not being a top 50 ever player. 120,000 (I think?) Benfica fans worshipped him as some sort of hero apparently in 1966 after he'd scored twice and played unbelievably in the away leg of the Man Utd-Benfica European Cup tie. I am too young to have lived through Best's career of course, but RoyoftheRovers isn't. When did Best say that Cr7 was better (not saying he didn't but I didn't know about it so if you can find the quote it'd be interesting to see - thanks).
[That's because Best played for NI at international level: "AdS" didn't exactly set the world on fire w/ANY national team that he represented IMHO. Yet I'd be willing to bet that you think he was one of the top players to ever lace up a pair of football boots (I saw him play and I rate him as well)...]
What I meant is that " WE DO NOT COUNT on someone's statement " seriously. About Maradona and Messi, back at WC10, as coach he put alot of hope in Messi to win it so he claimed Messi is at least as good (or better) than he was at same age. But 3 years passed, He claimed Messi is not at his level for he had won the WC at that age (1986) - that's all! I think he was a bit jealous or shaking with Messi's performance and STATS with Barca.