i dont think this tournament has been fair to ronaldo at all. This was supposed to be his world cup and could have been his world cup if not for a series of bad luck and injuries to himself and teammates. Look for him to bounce back with Portugal in euro qualifying, im expecting big things from portugal come euro 2016. In my opinion the 2018 world cup will decide the ronaldo messi debate, ronaldo will be 33 and messi 31, and i dont see how they are going to decline by then, so that will be the real decider, if both manage to stay healthy one of them will be regarded as the greatest of all time after that tournament.
It was unfair to Ronaldo, but to be quite honest and not trying to offend anyone here, he was never really in the pele vs. maradona discussion in the first place.
He played >60 games for the past 6 seasons. For comparison Maradona played 31 games the season before the World Cup. He said his legs felt like 100 kilos each.
They can easily decline before 2018 due to age. They both rely on their speed to do a lot of the things they do, and everyone slows down when they get older. Guys like Ibrahimovic and Pirlo who never used speed to their advantage tend to age more gracefully.
Messi at his young age caught dead in 2010, and at his peak caught choked in last 3games WC2014 ... too bad ... unless you HOPE Messi will get into his peak at 31 in WC2018? LOL for sure he is NO PELE
no in last 12games hwen Barca was in DEEP trouble and Messi did not show up ... many Barca fans said " oh becuase he SAVED energy for this WC" - you should remember this! Pleeeeeez
So did a lot of other players, Messi last year played 44 games while Ronaldo for example played 47 and Thomas Muller played 51.... Nothing out of the ordinary for those players. That's a lame excuse.
I do remember that I was one of the people who thought he did. Thats what has me thinking hes tired, has a minor injury, or this is his "new style" as some people have procclaimed.
Past 6 seasons Neymar has also played that much, Ronaldo also played that much (he hasn't been injured) Ribery etc.. doesn't change anything
Definitely no longer valid. It was a missed opportunity for Messi, though. I think he would have surpassed Maradona in most people's minds. I'm not sure Argentina will be in this good of a position four years from now.
Good! right now they are tied with Cruyff, Maldini, Figo, Zico, Socrates, Falcao, Roberto Dinamite, Junior, R. Baggio, Costacurta, Raul, Morientes, Wilmots, Seedorf, Bergkamp, Valderrama, any english player you can think of for the longest time, Crespo, Zanetti, Chilavert, Veron, Stoichkov, Hagi among many others that have no accomplished this. So is that really your basis for weak or strong era?