'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Cristiano Ronaldo is the man. There are very little doubts on the absolute genius, the immense greatness, of the man and so why we shouldn’t we tackle that question. The G.O.A.T. question?
I’ve already touched upon why our inability to separate nostalgia and objectivity prevents us from seeing Ronaldo as the greatest European footballer of all time, here I attempt to reason out why we could well call the Portuguese superstar the greatest of all time:
1. Longevity and Sheer Consistency
Few footballers have remained at the very top of the game, at the very top level of the game, for quite so long.
While he was by a country mile the best footballer in England during the last three years of his time at Manchester United, it is his immense consistency during the 7+ years he’s spent with Real Madrid that really highlights this aspect. Here’s his goal tally across those years – 33, 53, 60, 55, 51, 61, 51 and 42
And he shows no signs of slowing down. He now has 105 goals in the world’s toughest footballing competition. That’s more than Atletico Madrid have managed in their entire European Cup/Champions League history.
Read, Also – Cristiano Ronaldo, an elastico, and the beauty of a singular moment
The man’s 32 now and he’s still banging them in for fun. He’s no normal being... he is Superman.
His virtuoso performance against Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League involved a little bit of everything – excellent tracking back, brilliant off the ball movement, and more than anything – his incredible ability to alter the course of matches, and entire tournaments, through the sheer weight of his goal-scoring. He then went one peg better in the semifinal first leg – a hat trick against Atletico Madrid followed by a stunning brace against the nigh-impregnable defence of Juventus in the final. What a man.
When we look back at Ronaldo’s career the one thing that will really strike is just how good he has been – and for how long he remained that good.
2. Guiding club(s) and nation to their biggest honours
One Champions Leagues, four Premier Leagues and one Club World Cup with Manchester United. Three Champions Leagues and two La Ligas with Real Madrid. A European Championship with Portugal.
It’s not the amount of honours, though. It’s what he’s done during those campaigns, and how significant each victory has been for the side involved. His Champions League victory with United came at the end of a path-breaking season during which he smashed in 31 goals in the Premier League (and walked away with the Golden Boot, obviously) and 8 goals in the Champions League (and walked away with the top-scorers laurel, there, too). Add three FA Cup goals and that’s 42 goals he scored in 49 games all season. As a left winger. He raised the benchmark for anyone who wanted to call himself an inside-forward, and almost every season since, he’s been raising it again and again and again...
When the mythical ‘La Decima’ came about, the title that Real Madrid wanted above all else – he finished joint top-scorer in the Champions League. When the next one came about, he got them to the final with an out-of-the-world performance against Wolfsburg, scoring a hat-trick as Madrid came back from 2-0 down in the first leg to win it 3-2. In the third one, he turned in a man of the match performance, and scored a brace, to smash Juventus to smithereens. Oh and he finished top-scorer yet again.
He also inspired Portugal to the only international success in their storied history. He may not have done it with goals this time, but he hoisted the team on his back and powered them through – the sight of him leaping around on one leg is one that will remain in our memories for a long time to come.
3. The only “bargain” world-record signing
When he went from United to Madrid in 2009, he cost Los Blancos a record 94 million euros, smashing the previous world record set by Kaka earlier that same year (to the same club, as it was) and very few have actually lived up to the hype. If people thought his goalscoring was incredible for Manchester United, he was about to take it to a whole new, unprecedented, level in the capital of Spain.
He is already the highest scorer in the long, storied, history of Real Madrid. In 265 league games, he has 285 goals at a rate of 1.08 goals a game. In total, he has 406 in 394 at 1.03 a game. Not only is this unprecedented, it is utterly mind-boggling.
We have seen him do this so frequently that it has numbed us to the sheer enormity, the sheer volume, of his goals.
It’s not just the football, either. His mere presence has augmented the already considerable brand image of Real Madrid and has strengthened their business continuity model, their revenues, and their fan-base around the globe like no one before him.
Not only have they got back what they spent on Ronaldo – football-wise and money-wise – but they’ve in fact made much, much more. It’s probably the only time in the history of football that anyone signed in excess of 90 million Euros will ever be considered a “bargain”.
4. Single-minded Will-to-Win
Lionel Messi is arguably the most gifted player of all time. Let us get that out there... there has been no one so naturally at home with a ball at his feet and if this was just a question of footballing magic, the answer would always be Messi. But it is not. The mere fact that we are even having this discussion in the era of Messi shows you just how good Ronaldo is.
This is not to discount the Portuguese’ wizardry on the ball... few people before him, if any at all, have been able to do the things he could at full speed when he was in his absolute physical prime. Those step-overs, those cutbacks, those leaving-defenders-on-their-backsides swerves – they were things of immense beauty. But as age caught up, he changed, he adapted his game... like Rio Ferdinand said:
He liked taking liberties when he first came, taking people on, making people look silly and doing skills before coming back to beat them again.
His whole thing when he first signed was about showmanship, he'd listen to the fans when he'd do that bit of skill, when he'd do that step-over.
Whereas then there was that turning point around that time when it was about goals, assists. Then he became the game-changer, rather than the showman. That's that maturity and the penny dropping."
And that’s when he really started on that inexorable march towards Greatness. Like the ever-incisive Amartojit Basu says it, “He is inspiration personified, he is the will to win, he is desire, he is commitment and he is ambition”. His ego has ensured that he has done everything, everything, necessary to ensure he remains at the forefront of the G.O.A.T debate – and he has succeeded.
Also, Read – Selfishness – the ‘virtue’ that fuels the greatness of Cristiano Ronaldo
5. The most complete forward in history
Across his career, he’s had almost every attribute, every weapon that an attacking footballer could ever ask for. While he doesn’t do it as much these days, his dribbling and the sizzling pace at which he did was as good as the game has ever seen. His finishing has always been immaculate – and ruthless. He has learned over the years how to perfect the art of off-the-ball movement as he drags people hither and thither at his whim, opening up spaces not just for him but his entire offensive unit.
His shooting is brilliant from any range, of either foot (a very underrated quality of his... he has no ‘weak’ foot), his crossing has always been impeccable, his passing is exquisite (when he does choose to) and he’s brilliant at set-pieces (mastering the folha-seca technique of hitting the ball in a way that makes it arc down at the very last moment)
Oh, and no-one, no-one, has headed a football quite like this man.
When you pick out the great forwards of the game and analyse their chief qualities, you will always see one ‘outstanding’ quality, and a few weakness here and there – but when football historians and aficionados pick over the corpse of Cristiano Ronaldo’s career in 2087, they will find it next to impossible to identify ’just one’ outstanding quality, and they will find it nearly impossible to pick a weakness.
He is, arguably, the most complete forward in the history of our “beautiful game”
