Cristiano Ronaldo Vs History
Abstract: Cristiano Ronaldo is one the best football players of all time. Last Sunday, Portugal’s Euro win fortified his legacy in the game’s pantheon. One important question remain however, where exactly does he rank among the greatest?
Resume: 14 years active, 12 quality years, top 3: 9x (’07, ’08, 09', ’11, ’12, ’13, ’14, ’15, ‘16), top 5: 1x (‘10), top 15: 1x (‘06), Ballon d’Or/FIFA Ballon d’Or 4x (’08, ’13, ’14, ’16) (1), best player in a Champions League winning side: 3x (’09, ’14, ’16) (2), best player on a Euro Champion 1x (‘16), second best player on a World Cup semi-finalist 1x (‘06), domestic league champion 4x (’07, ’08, ’09, ‘13), Champions League top scorer 5x (’08, ’13, ’14, ’15, ‘16), European Golden Boot 4x (’08, ’11, ’14, ‘15), Champions League all time top scorer (93 goals) (3), peak seasons (’08, ’09 & ‘13 ).
There is a compelling modernist (4) argument that Cristiano Ronaldo is the second best football player of all time. There are also very smart people that genuinely don’t believe he’s a top 20 player of all time. The truth? As for many polarized questions in life: somewhere in between.
First let’s address the elephant in the room, Cristiano Ronaldo, is not better than Lionel Messi. This is not about rehashing the obvious but rather an objective contextualization of an excellent career in history.
The modernists’ best case for Cristiano Ronaldo is based almost entirely on consistency rather than pure talent. This is not necessarily a bad argument (5), but it’s one that certainly comes with limitations.
To be fair, Cristiano does not get enough credit for his remarkable consistency. At this point, we take it for granted that he will score 36+ goals in his domestic league, that he’ll net another 10 in the champions league or that he will be in champions league semi finals. But if we’re going to be frank about the subject, there has been no precedent for a decade of sustained excellence in football history.
Perhaps his collective consistency is inflated: the second millennium's new financial order unfortunately gave birth to the modern super team essentially creating a certain form of predictability in both domestic and continental leagues.The Champions League’s expansions of the nineties is an also an advantage for modern players: having a group stage allows a margin of error that simply did not exist in the knock out style pre-1995 tournament (6).
Skeptics question the individual numbers. Some argue that modern defenses are weaker. I don’t subscribe to this theory; the game is certainly less physical than they were a few decades ago but defenses are not exactly worst. There is less space on the pitch for offenses to operate than there was thirty years ago and defenses are much more disciplined. Overall defenders are more talented and play much better off the ball. Most importantly, defensive pragmatism is on the rise: the last 15 years have provided excellent showcases of defensive alternatives to offensive football.
Others argue that Cristiano has not always performed his best on the biggest stage. Pro-Ronaldo analysts will tell you his record in big games is not all that bad — truth be told, it isn’t. He scored the winning goal in final of the Copa Del Rey against Barcelona. His 2008 champions league performance against Chelsea is overlooked because he missed a penalty during the shootout but he was objectively the best player on the field that night. His 16 Clásico goals rank only behind Messi and Di Stéfano. Both played in more Clásicos than he has and he will probably surpass Di Stéfano this season. His dual performance against Sweden was the most dominant individual football display in 2013.
On the other hand, this anti-Cristiano critic is for the most part founded — if not correct. Great players usually have at least 3 games that every football fan will always remember. I can’t remember, and I might be wrong, any Cristiano performance approaching the inspirational levels that we’ve seen. Examples of such performances:
Unfortunately, too much of anti-Cristiano criticism is based on non-football reasons. Over the past ten years, I’ve hear constantly that he was a diva, that he was arrogant and that he was selfish on the pitch. Those accusations are not only deeply rooted in passion, they’re also simply wrong. Romário was the quintessential football diva, he got coach fired, fought teammates, and requested a transfer move at his peak. Other players — Cruyff, Maradona, Schuster and Messi — have had diva-esque personalities that affected their team but nobody ever mentions those demons to analyze them.
I suppose you can piece quotes here and there that are indefensible and yes his celebrations are often over the top and border line annoying but for the most part, Cristiano has had a drama-free career on the pitch. He gets along extremely well with his coaches and his teammates. Although he came up short in some big games, nobody can accuse him of not trying his best. He’s always fit during the season and played hurt multiple time to give his team a better chance of winning. If anything, he has embraced the competitive challenge by moving to Spain after winning the premier league three years in row. This is the most admirable move of his career and it’s sad that it gets dismissed as an obsession of Leo rather than appreciated for an act of competitiveness.
At some point however, the conversation must come back to football. Cristiano’s athleticism and his pitch vision are underrated. Although this is more of a modern football trait than an unique expertise, he has the ability to play anywhere on offense (striker, midfielder, winger). His goal scoring qualities unquestionably rank among the fives best of all time. He is the most lethal player in the air in the game today and his headers plays are also historically great. Put it simply: Cristiano is one the most complete player I’ve ever seen.
However, on football basis, he is not exactly a more talented player than Zidane. Peak Ronaldo Luiz was faster and stronger. He’s not a better dribbler than Iniesta. He’s not more fun to watch than Romário. He’s not a more complete player than Van Basten. He’s certainly not an all-time clutch performer. Most importantly, at their absolute peak I don’t think he’s a better offensive player than Zidane, Ronaldo Luiz and Van Basten.
His longevity allows him to surpass Best (who stopped playing great football past age 26). His consistency edges out Ronaldinho and Romário — Both are more talented than him but neither of them was ever concern with reaching their full peak potential (7). Winning Euro at the very least puts him to par with Platini and Van Basten.
Personally, I’m not confident enough to put him ahead of any of the indisputable pre-modern top 4— Pele, Maradona, Cruyff and Becken (8). I don’t have him a head of Messi, Zidane, Ronaldo Luiz and Iniesta in the modern game. I’m pretty sure I would still go Van Basten over Cristiano even after last Sunday.
Can he move a few spots? Sure, I’m by no means a Wold Cup purist but winning in 2018 even in a scrappy fashion will move my opinion. So we wait…
- I’m assuming that he will win the FIFA Ballon d’Or this year.
- Gareth Bale has been the most explosive player on Madrid the last 3 years. Angel Di Maria was the most important player on the ’14 champion. You can point out that he has not been good in Champions league finals. But overall, Cristiano was the best player on those teams.
- CR has a 10 goal lead on Messi on that end.
- My great football friend Fabrice Pierre is the most avid supporter of this ideology.
- Had Ronaldinho been a top 3 player in the world for more than 3 years, he’d be a solid candidate to be a a top 15 players of all time. Alas, he’s been surpassed by Cristiano, Messi and Iniesta.
- There was a brief period in the 2000s when there were two group phases before the knockout stage. This made group stages more fun to watch and less predictable, but I still think the knockout format we have today is a winning formula.
- Peak Ronaldinho was awe-inspiring, I think it’s a shame we forget how great and dominant he really was. On the other hand, Ronnie wasted more talent than a lot of very successful player ever had.
- Becken is really here out of reverence than anything else.
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