Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo does take a lot of free-kicks and penalties and scores quite often too, at least from the latter. In a video interview for Unscripted, he spoke about many things, including what sort of deadball situation he likes more – free-kicks or penalties.
When asked whether he preferred penalties or free-kicks, Ronaldo chose the former, saying, “Hmmm, penalty. I think penalties. It's better, the adrenaline is more and I like things with more adrenaline.”
Cristiano Ronaldo exclusively for Unscriptd
Posted by Unscriptd on Thursday, February 18, 2016
Though the Portuguese captain has taken a lot of penalties for all his teams, he clearly is one of the best penalty takers in the world, as he barely misses any while his free-kick taking was once lethal, but has now lost some of that sheen.
Ronaldo has converted 7 out of the 8 penalties he has taken this season, a rate that is really good. A total of 33 goals scored so far indicate that he has been scoring a lot and penalty taking is an art he has clearly mastered.
However, if you look at his free-kick numbers, he has converted only 3 out of his last 100 attempts, indicating that opponent goalkeepers seem to have worked out the best way to stop his set-pieces. It also does say that the former Manchester United man has lost some of his potency from deadball situations.
Interestingly, this question was asked to him after the whole Messi-Suarez two-man penalty issue, where the little Argentine passed the ball to Luis Suarez to score. When he was asked about that, Ronaldo said he knew why Messi did what he did but that he wouldn't explain it any further.
The Real Madrid all-time leading goalscorer was also asked about which athlete he admired more – Michael Jordan or Muhammad Ali, in response to which Ronaldo said, “I think they are both legends, in my opinion, in different sports, but they are both unbelievable.”
