The issue for being the GOAT for Ronaldo, and Messi for that matter, is each other. It's hard to claim to be the best ever if you are not the undisputed best player in your own era MJ undisputed best in his era. Babe Ruth. Maradona same thing. Lebron can challenge MJ because he is the undisputed best of this era. Being objective, no matter what fans of either player claim, neither can claim to be undisputed as the best in the world. I think their great rivalry will keep both below Maradona and Pele in many's eyes
Been following football since 1998 World Cup. Chose 11. Messi/Ronaldo Zidane R9 Dinho Rivaldo Maldini Redondo Pirlo Xavi/Iniesta
Your list would have been: 1)Ronaldo 9 * * * * 1a. Cristiano Ronaldo 1b. Lionel Messi 3. Zinedine Zidane 4. Andres Iniesta 5. Xavi Hernandez 6. Ronaldinho 7. Raúl Gonzalez Blanco 8. Arjen Robben 9. Thierry Henry 10. Kaka People often judged Ronaldo mixing his career after his injuries. His performance at WC 2002 and his first season (2002-2003) with us were great, but they were up to Ronaldo's first season with Barcelona. If you look at his first season with Barcelona, he was from a different level from anyone I have seen, Look at his first 25 goals in La Liga. Most of them were solos. He made all of them by himself. I never followed La Liga until Ronaldo showed up in Barcelona. I just moved back to Asia from the US. The league was not popular in Asia. That season, I tried to watch Ronaldo whenever Barcelona's games were shown on TV. I did not recall ever watching a single Real Madrid game. If Ronaldo stayed in Barcelona, I would have became a Barcelona fan eventually. In October, 1998, I travelled to Madrid. I visited the museum at Santiago Bernabeu(I did not want to go when Madrid had so much other things to offer). Once at the museum, I met some fans and decided to attend a game with them a few days later. So I went to watch them against Racing Santander. "I knew nothing about this club, " I told them. And there was also an interesting taxi ride. The taxi driver drove past Vicente Calderón Stadium and I asked him in English if that was the Atletico Madrid's stadium. The man who was probably in his 60's answered me in Spanish, a language I do not understand, but I somehow understood everything he said: "Si, si.... you should attend a game while in town. La lira is the best in the world. Atletico Madrid are very good, but I support Real Madrid. They have Hierro, Seedorf, Roberto Carlos, Raul, etc. They are much better." After the trip, I listed myself a Real Madrid fan, but not really until Ronaldo(my favourite player because of Barcelona) joined the club in 2003.
IMO Ronaldo R9 could have been the greatest player in history by a long long distance were it not for injuries. If you tell me I could be any player at any stage of his career and I would choose Ronaldo at age 19. He really had the world at his feet.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...ry-player-for-real-madrid-in-1617-liga-season Fantastic article about RM players rankings for the season. I agree with most of it, except I would've placed Carvajal and Marcelo highed. Modric also has a case to be higher, but tbh the list is spot on even if left alone.
Nobody has kept Real Madrid off the score sheet in over a year. I'm confident the goals will come. What we need is the defense that showed up against Malaga and 1st leg of the semis.
I've always maintained the same opinion. By far the best player I ever saw in my lifetime. Even the latter years RM iteration, let alone the R9 of Barcelona days or Brazil NT R9 who was just a stone cold killa. I remember vividly, watching RM games every week in which he would just walk around for the first 60 odd mins with teams bunkering against us and then he would suddenly come alive, as if he'd just said...... ok ok.... give me the damn ball. 1 chance. 1 goal. We get 3 points. There were so many games like that. Best I ever saw.
"The Frenchman is, in a technical sense and with his game intelligence, the best defender at the club, no question—maybe even a good-enough all-rounder to rival the likes of Gerard Pique..." I stopped reading right there, Pique LOL.
Ronaldo and Pele. I never saw Pele but from what I'heard and read he was on another orbit at the time.
I still maintain that if Ronaldo didn't get injured at the business end of the 03/04 season we would of won the treble. Sad times.
Saw you mention this on redcafe as well. For the CdR final it might be true, but for the CL tie vs Monaco and the last 5 La Liga games which we lost, its not really correct. R9 played both games vs Monaco as well as 3 of those final 5 league games. With R9 fit for the games he missed, we would have definitely had a better chance, but I think the end result was more due to our midfield running on fumes and not having the energy left to protect that fragile defence by the end of the campaign, after having been made to play in almost every game by Queiroz, till that point in the season. The difference between the energy levels and pressing from our midfield in the early games of that season vs those final games is in fact observably large. Of course, Raul's poor goalscoring form also exacerbated R9's absence. I personally feel that selling off a lot of the bench in the 03/04 transfer window ended up being our downfall, since there was no one for Queiroz to turn to when injuries/suspensions hit us during an already crowded schedule, due to us chasing a treble, near the business end of the season. Not to mention, his player utilisation till that point hadn't built any confidence in the non-starters, while simultaneously building up fatigue in the starters.
I distinctly recall you mocking this debate, saying its pointless. Also, dude, fat Ronaldo is not the preferred nomenclature. Ronaldo Fenomeno, please.
and titles as well, but talent wise, CR was never and will never get to the talent level Fat Ronaldo had. not even close.
I could understand Barcelona fans hating him and calling him fat Ronaldo, but hes a Madridista and thats spitting on our own. Not to mention its a myth that he was fat at Madrid, he wasn't fat until the injury at Milan. He had godlike physique Onthat topic, I find the lack of CR7 shirtless photos in this thread disturbing (no homo).