Ah, yes. Another day, another thread on bigsoccer where a Brazilian fan painstakingly compares Zico’s 1981 Libertadores warm-up jog to Maradona's 1986 WC. We're back, folks! It's South America's favorite sport, no, not football, instead minimizing Argentinean Players. Go see any anti-Messi threads in this website and you can read all of these same so-called "football purist" make similar arguments against Messi in effort to preserve Brazil players on GOAT lists. . . please please, give me so more rare stats about Socrates or Beto . . . all very relevant. indeed.
Gylmar > Fillol Cafu>Zanetti Thiago Silva<Passarella Lucio>Ruggeri Roberto Carlos>Marzolini Falcão>Redondo Didi>Moreno Zico<Maradona Garrincha<Messi Ronaldo>Batistuta Pelé>Di Stefano 8x3 Cry baby
R9's credentials as a goalscorer are much better. That is, he's the top scorer in the World Cup and the top scorer in La Liga twice. He holds a record for goals in both competitions. I know you're going to say that Batistuta played for Roma and Fiorentina, which were worse teams, but I honestly don't see how you can build an argument that as a goalscorer Batistuta was as good as Ronaldo. Especially since they played in the same era and the same competition and Ronaldo was clearly superior
Consider their record with NTs: same era, quite the same competitions, similar strength of their own teams. Bati scored even more (R9 .6 gpg more or less, B9 .7). Numbers achieved with NTs are often revealing in my opinion. For istance, they can allow you debunking the mythology surrounding Van Basten (and that of Maradona in part). Of course I am not basing my claim (R9=R9) only on NT goals, I remember well their respective achievements in serie A too. But you asked for a single simple and synthetic argument to support my judgement, so here you are.
Cláudio Taffarel > Emiliano Martínez Rai > Ricardo Bochini Romario > Sergio Aguero Neymar > Di Maria Ronaldinho > Riquelme Rivaldo > Mario Kempes Kaka > Pablo Aimar Careca > Gonzalo higuain Roberto Rivelino > Sebastian Veron Leônidas > Arsenio Erico Reinaldo > Hernan crespo Socrates > Osvaldo Ardiles Roberto Dinamite > Lautaro Martínez Arthur Friedenreich > Manuel Seoane 22 - 3
.... Cerezo > Barbas Oscar Bernardi > Brown Junior > Tarantini Leandro Ferreira > whoever player as Argentina's right LD ....
I know Batistuta played most of his career at mid-tier clubs and in the toughest league in the world, but Ronaldo stood out as a goalscorer even among players from top teams like Shevchenko, van Nistelrooy, and Henry, for example (at least in domestic leagues). As for the national team, despite Batistuta having a higher goal average, Ronaldo became the all-time top scorer in World Cup history. That’s quite an achievement.
It's getting very off topic lol but being all time top scorer of WC is one point which combined with a lot of other points make Ronaldo a better player than Batigol
Gabriel Batistuta's Goal Record vs. the Top 4 League Teams while at Fiorentina 53 Games (4557 Minutes) 27 Goals 2 Penalty Goals 0.51 Goals per Game 0.47 Non-Penalty Goals per Game Gabriel Batistuta's Goal Record vs. the Top 10 Ranked International Nations in the Same Time Frame (1991 - 2000) 20 Games (1521 Minutes) 6 Goals 1 Penalty Goal 0.30 Goals per Game 0.25 Non-Penalty Goals per Game I thought I should give some statistical showing on Batistuta for this conversation.
100% of Ronaldo nazario’s goals and assists in the Copa America were produced against international teams with an ELO rating below 1900 points And after you take away Ronaldo nazario’s goals scored vs China,Japan,Costa Rica and Chile in World Cup tournaments he is perhaps left with a mere handful of tournament goals scored vs international teams that were even remotely competitive with Brazil ——————————- Ronaldo nazario in Serie A 1997/98 25 goals+3 assists in 2872 minutes 0.87 goals+assists per 90 Ronaldo - Stats 97/98 | Transfermarkt Gabriel batistuta in Serie A 1997/98 21 goals+6 assists in 2790 minutes 0.87 goals+assists per game Gabriel Batistuta - Stats 97/98 | Transfermarkt Gabriel batistuta in Serie A 1998/99 21 goals+3 assists in 2475 minutes 0.87 goals+assists per 90 Gabriel Batistuta - Stats 98/99 | Transfermarkt Gabriel batistuta in Serie A 1999/00 23 goals+2 assists in 2593 mins 0.87 goals+assists per 90 Gabriel Batistuta - Stats 99/00 | Transfermarkt Batistuta: You can’t teach the art of goalscoring
Messi's natural talent overshadows how hard he actually works pic.twitter.com/IVbpU1rTpi— MC (@CrewsMat10) September 15, 2025 —————————-
I don't understand why you put Maradona's profile and then destroy it? I don't understand Platini himself can't put himself above Maradona, and here you put Platini above him Platini himself gave Maradona the award for the best player of the century https://www.globesoccer.com/winners/diego-armando-maradona-player-career-award-3/ . https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/platini-to-ap-maradona-was-the-greatest-football-lover/