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August 6th, 2003, I sat in the buttery of my University to see a friendly between Sporting Lisbon and Manchester United. While the match ended in a 3-1 victory for the home team, the ultimate victor on that day was Sporting’s number 28, a teenager from Madeira by the name Cristiano Ronaldo. During the following days, still reeling from the winger’s exploits on the night, it was reported that United had paid $12m for his services after the United team had persuaded the gaffer to get him. That night, I watched as Ronaldo tore the defence apart time after time, setting up two goals and allegedly sent Ferdinand to Rio for a much-needed rest.
Fast forward, over a dozen years after, that young boy from Madeira is, without doubt, the biggest sports star in the world and arguably in football history.
Ask anyone who they feel is the best player ever and the first names on their lips are either of the two legendary South Americans, Pele and Maradona. Curiously, the Pele-Maradona conundrum wasn’t a rivalry as the fierce one between Ronaldo and Messi as their careers were decades apart. It was more of a comparison of two athletes who virtually, single-handedly took their countries to World Cup glory. Pele, even though he never played in Europe, was simply incomparable until Maradona came along. He is the only player credited with scoring over a thousand career goals and despite the numerous talents that Brazil has churned out, no one has come near his 77-goal international goal haul. What makes Pele so great however is that he is the only man who has won 3 World Cups, the first as a 17-year-old and of course the nerve of his goals.
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It is disputable where Maradona is more revered, whether in Argentina or in Naples, one thing that is concretely certain is that he took both club and country on each shoulder and steered them to glory after glory almost singlehandedly. At no other World Cup did a player dominate as much as Maradona did in Mexico in 1986. The folks who will remember him most are the 3 Peters, 2 Terrys and Steve Hodge, the 6 English players he left for dead on his way to scoring the greatest goal in World Cup history. At Napoli, he achieved more than what Leicester did the last term, steering them to two Scudettos, an Italian Cup and a Uefa Cup. He scored over 300 career goals and in his honour, no one wears the number 10 jersey at Napoli again.
There were a lot of other great players in the game. Johan Cruyff who was probably the most influential as both player and manager, Alfredo Di Stefano, George Best and the other Ronaldo, De Lima. Indeed, many will still argue the Brazilian is the best player to have ever graced a football field, however, none can match the statistics the present Ronaldo has managed to conjure up. Cristiano Ronaldo may not have the raw talent as his predecessors but he made up for it in hard work, tremendous practice and the desire and will to be the best. After becoming the first and only Premier League player to win the FIFA World Player of the year in 2008, Ronaldo moved to Madrid for a world record fee. And it is in Madrid where, unlike other players, he fully justified his price tag.
The numbers with Madrid are simply outrageous. He is by far Madrid’s all-time goalscorer with 450 goals in 438 appearances. While he took the match ball home only once while playing for United, any visitor to his home will be astonished to find 51 match balls. Yes! 51 career hat tricks!
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As a man of many firsts, he is the first player to win the European Golden Shoe from two different leagues and the only player to win it 4 times, first player to score against all La Liga teams in a single season, first player to score in 6 successive Clasicos, first to reach 100 goals in UEFA club competition, first and only player to win individual and club awards with 2 different clubs and the list is endless. The Champions League is his. He is the top scorer in the competition with 120 goals and the only player to have won it 5 times. He is the only player to score in 11 consecutive Champions League matches and the only player to score in 3 finals. He is, of course, Portugal’s most capped and record goal scorer with 85 goals in 154 appearances. Only Iran’s Ali Daei has scored more international goals.
Nothing cements his greatness further than his power to command a transfer fee in excess of a $100m for a player in the twilight of his career. With over 600 career goals and certainly more individual and club awards to come, it will take a true villain not to recognise the young man from Madeira as one of the Greatest of All Time. If not the Greatest.
