Cristiano Ronaldo ~ Your Favorite Player Is So Much Better!! Thread

Just another Messi turnover leading to a game-winning goal in UCL pic.twitter.com/dnL0XvnIs5

— Kylian's Kompany (@someballfacts) January 2, 2025

 

I don't think we have a player in the top 5 European leagues who has both the most dribbles and the most crosses in a season. Only CR7 did this in 2004/05.

 

Figo probably.

Edit: probably not!

 

Non penalty goals in the 2006/07 CL
Kaka=6
Cristiano=3

kaka won the Ballon dor for this and nothing more than this

Cristiano had more(4) ESM monthly rankings than Kaka(3) in 2006/07
https://erubik.xyz/esm/season.php?id=2006-07&view=bymonth

he was in 2006/07 the highest rated PL player according to DBS calcio



Kaka was the 48th highest rated Serie A player according to the same source

 

The hardest working and the most disciplined elite athletes IMO


Boxing
Marvin Hagler


Tennis
Rafael Nadal



Football
Cristiano Ronaldo



Basketball
Kobe Bryant



American football
Tom Brady



Swimming
Micheal phelps



Martial artists/UFC
Bruce Lee/Khabib Nurmagomedov




Formula 1
Ayrton senna


Some nice videos and articles







https://balancethegrind.co/daily-routines/marvelous-marvin-hagler-daily-routine/

https://www.ayrton-senna.net/ayrton-senna-training-for-success/

Rafael Nadal ‘overachieved more than anybody’ as Roger Federer 'talent' comparison made amid Spaniard's retirement - TNT Sports


https://www.olympics.com/en/news/michael-phelps-training-regimen-workut-diet


https://www.football365.com/news/beckenbauer-recalls-ronaldo-discussion-with-fergie


https://www.businessinsider.com/kobe-bryant-insane-work-ethic-2013-8

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Lee's_Fighting_Method

 

Most of those guys also had the winning/mamba mentality

 

@Isaías Silva Serafim

Lionel Messi on Cristiano Ronaldo

“It’s always been a great battle between us in sporting terms

I think we fed off eachother with this rivalry because we are both great competitors

He wanted to win everything all the time
It was a golden era for every football fan

We deserve a lot of credit for staying so long at the top because as they say it is easy to get to the top but what’s difficult is staying there


We stayed there for 10 or 15 years
It was spectacular and a great memory for everyone”

https://streamain.com/en/2FQbQ3hCCDxa871/watch

Lionel Messi just buried 6ft deep every single fanboy of his who said longevity is overrated and peak/reaching the top is the most important thing


He buried every single fanboy of his and spreadsheet merchant who said Cristiano was not his rival for greatness

He buried every single fanboy of his and spreadsheet merchant who said the rivalry was manufactured by the media

Possibly the biggest ‘enemy’ for extreme Messi fanboys is Lionel Messi himself and they would prefer he stayed mute like he did for most of his career.

 

https://iffhs.com/posts/4380

 

That list by iffhs is a literal nightmare for Wiliam Felipe Gracek and Tropeiro



They are the exact same organisation that awarded Messi his best playmaker in the world awards

 

It's a bs organization though

 

El Clásico: Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 10 goals in his last 9 visits to the Camp Nou. ⚽️ #UCL pic.twitter.com/mnMUpjr3g1

— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) November 30, 2016

 

How important is Off the ball movement when it comes to individual performances and improving the team? (Part 2)

This goal is created all by Ronaldo himself and shows what every forward should try to add to their game. Ronaldo passes the ball and finds an opening through the… pic.twitter.com/fdRRwdQO0L

— z (@noLspxndu) May 25, 2025

 

Cristiano Ronaldo tracking back in the 91st minute against Arsenal



@Isaías Silva Serafim @SayWhatIWant

 

0:39

 

There is a difference between tracking back half the length of the pitch in minute 1 and doing the exact same thing in minute 91



That version of Messi did not have the stamina levels to do what Cristiano did

This version of Messi possibly did

 

Again aguero

 

One thing Cristiano always had is a sheer, unimpeachable commitment to victory.
This reminds me of the famous interview by Mourinho saying you cannot compare the goal numbers between Cristiano and Messi, because the former carries serious defensive responsibilities on the wing, while the former operates very close to the box.

 

@Isaías Silva Serafim


These are some further notes I would like to add to my previous post(s) in your thread



The thing is Cristiano is neither a contender for the 2025 ballon dor nor did he win the treble.


So I’m bringing our discussion to this thread to keep your thread on topic as much as possible.

———————————

It is not so difficult I think to make a case that Johan Cruyff,Ronald Koeman,David Beckham,Wesley sneijder,Erling Haaland and now Dembele were/are deserving ballon dor candidates


The strongest case I think would be for Johan Cruyff and the weakest for Erling Haaland but a case at least can be made for all the aforementioned players




Now onto the one player I did not elaborate on in any of my previous posts

I took a look at Franck riberys CL ratings on sofascore and with no exaggeration it is the most damning rating I have ever seen for any ballon dor contender




Franck ribery was not the highest rated Bayern Munich player in the 2012/13 CL


He was not the 2nd
He was not the 3rd
He was not the 10th


In fact he was literally the lowest ranked Bayern Munich in the entire tournament


During the 2010s and 2020s winning the Bundesliga or performing very well in it has never been on its own enough to be given consideration for an individual trophy as prestigious as the ballon dor



Robert lewandowski in 2021 is the exception and not the rule


In 2021 he broke a ~50 year record of an all time great striker. A record that seemed for many generations to be completely unreachable.

And even he did not win the BD in the end because amazing statistics in the Bundesliga can never take you to the absolute top of the tree




I get Cristiano is extremely disliked/hated by a very vocal minority



Ribery too has his of field allegations and this is not the thread to delve into that
if you know you know and if you don’t it is very easy to find out


But seriously
Is this the robbery people speak of?





Sofascore even ‘favours’ passing ability more than it does dribbling ability which is why you will find a player like Xavi marginally rated higher than Lionel Messi in the 2008/09 and 2009/10 CL tournaments


Which is why Bastian Schweinsteiger is at the top of the Bayern Munich rankings in 2012/13 according to sofascore

Passing,assisting and creating
These are all Riberys strong points and still he is literally the lowest ranked player on his own team

You may actually be surprised to learn that in July 2013 Schweinsteiger was voted the German footballer of the year
Schweinsteiger honoured as Germany's best | UEFA.com

Franck Ribery was second with 87 points and Thomas muller was third with 85 points




So you have to really ask yourself the following questions



How did Ribery manage to be awarded the UEFA club footballer of the season with absolutely shocking CL performances like this?

How did a player who was not even perceived to be the best player on his own team in the immediate aftermath of the 2012/13 season manage to sneak into a ballon dor contest?


How did this ‘Ribery was cheated’ conspiracy really emerge?

The answers to the first 2 questions is an enigma to me but the third is clear

Looking at the facts it appears to me that Barcelona fans were naturally banking on Messi to win 2013 ballon dor



To be fair in the early part of 2013 it appeared to almost every fair minded and objective analyst that Messi winning the 2013 ballon dor would be a forgone conclusion

Purely, in my opinion, due to the phenomenal rate of his goals,assists and his general play although not exactly 2011 levels was still better than most/every player in the world

But then he got injured in March and truth be told not until the second half of 2014/15 did Messi ever regain that superhuman level of consistency and end product that placed him above everyone else including Ronaldo




Messi’s real best work in 2012/13 was done mostly in 2012 and he was already awarded for that.


The 91 goal calendar year record was a very important factor in his case for the 2012 ballon dor and many of his goals in 2012/13 contributed to that.


These are real facts whether people like it or not




But what really intrigues me is why Barcelona fans are some of the most vocal proponents of the idea that Ribery was cheated of the ballon dor.



It so happens that Barcelona were cooked by Bayern Munich in the CL semifinals



At that point in history you could say it was the most embarrassing result in the modern history of FC Barcelona(and of course worst things have happened since then)



In order to rationalise this and cope with this they inexplicably misdirected what should’ve been their ‘disdain’ for Bayern Munich and their players and turned it into completely fake adoration for Bayern Munich and their PR chosen candidate for the ballon dor Franck ribery.



That Ribery was even a candidate to begin with was forced propaganda by KHR the director of Bayern Munich and Michel Platini his countryman (the then UEFA president)


Quote

“I am very disappointed it wasn’t Ribery,” Platini is quoted as saying by L’Equipe.



Next year we will return to the Cristiano-Messi duel, and in two years we will have Cristiano, Messi, Messi, Cristiano between the years.


For 50 years the Ballon d’Or has taken into account titles won on the field.

Now it is more based on the overall performance of the players and that’s a problem”
‘Ribery should have won Ballon d’Or’ – Football España



Michel Platini is so shameless that he doesn’t even deny that the 2013 ballon dor winner was awarded based on his on field performances as if this is a crime


He also puts a huge spin and I suspect intentionally lies when he says the ballon dor has historically taken into account “trophies won in the season”


Without elaborating further this is pure deception


There is a reason Johan Cruyff won multiple ballon dors playing for Ajax and a player like Arnold Mühren did not


They both won several Eredivisie titles and crucially/importantly several European Cup titles


They both won the same titles during the glory period of Ajax but only one took the plaudits

And that was the player who was the most integral player in the titles they won


Club Titles on their own no matter the amount have never been enough to win a ballon dor.



At that point in football history as Platini alludes to without contesting it even though it “upsets him”

It was Messi and Ronaldo
And the third player was there just to make the numbers



For a very vocal section of Barcelona fans if there was even a remote possibility that Messi could lose the ballon dor to the symbol of Real Madrid they will side with the alternative fake candidate even if that alternative fake candidate literally contributed to one of the most embarrassing defeats in their entire history

Franck Ribery 2013 is merely a pawn in their game for supremacy and they suffer from an illness for which there is no cure.

 

Franck Ribery - 2013 UCL knockouts

Ballon d'Or?pic.twitter.com/B006JZ6QlL https://t.co/ofInbIILWm

— fan account (@Asensii20) June 7, 2025