Who's the better Ronaldo, Brazilian or Portuguese?

The Abusement Park

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Cristiano, quite easily honestly. R9 peak seasons aren't even as good as Cristiano's prime seasons. Sure he may have had more natural talent, but I've never seen anyone be as motivated to be the best like Cristiano is. Also props to Ronaldo for being able to adapt to being more of a poacher type player. That will honestly really help prolong his career at the top.
 

xavi4life

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Better player is easy, it's the brazilian one and that was the question of this thread.
Better career is tough because even one leg brazilian one won a WC (and was decisive al throughout) and still scored a lot.
Cristiano probably had the better career, but even that isn't obvious.

Agreed. CR7 is racking up huge goal numbers on Madrid who constantly serve him the ball, but the dude is a straight ball hog and shoots on net more almost 4 times more than most forwards.

Ronaldo would have had an incredible career had he stayed at Barcelona. There are 2 sides to the story on why he left, 1) Inter Milan offered him insane amounts of money to him and his agent or 2) the Barcelona board at the time didn't fulfill certain promises made to him and Ronaldo took a great offer to leave since he felt slighted. Not sure, but it sounds like a little bit of both.

Anyways, Ronaldo was a BEAST.

 

Acallabeth

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As for the competition, I'd say the 3rd best player is probably Suarez at this point (even his 40 league goals are 6 more than R9 ever scored in any league).
By your goals counting logic, Suarez is a better player than Ronaldo ever was as well :dunno: It's too hard to compare raw scoring in soccer, you always have to measure ability too.
 

xavi4life

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Cristiano, quite easily honestly. R9 peak seasons aren't even as good as Cristiano's prime seasons. Sure he may have had more natural talent, but I've never seen anyone be as motivated to be the best like Cristiano is. Also props to Ronaldo for being able to adapt to being more of a poacher type player. That will honestly really help prolong his career at the top.

CR7 is motivated because of his giant ego, no matter how giant it gets, it doesn't make him the best player in the world.
 

The Abusement Park

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CR7 is motivated because of his giant ego, no matter how giant it gets, it doesn't make him the best player in the world.

Only because he's playing behind arguably the greatest player to ever live. If CR7 played in any other era he would undoubtedly be the best player in the world. And who cares if he's motivated to be a better player because of his ego? If I'm building a team, I want players that want to be better and win games. CR7 does that. He's a top 5 player of all time and we are lucky to witness him and Messi at the same time.
 

cgf

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Before the injuries, Ronaldo did things that you'd have to combine Messi & CR7 into one player to match. I've never seen such a magical player.
 

The Abusement Park

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Before the injuries, Ronaldo did things that you'd have to combine Messi & CR7 into one player to match. I've never seen such a magical player.

From what I've read, people think that R9 had way more natural talent, which is pretty accurate. But CR7 has more drive and motivation, something that R9 really lacked. Had he had more motivation I really think R9 would've been in contention for a spot along with Messi, Maradona, CR7, and Pele. Unfortunately I believe is in the tier just below. Absolutely amazing player though.

Edit: Also injuries also didn't help R9 in the long term as well.
 

Duchene2MacKinnon

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Only because he's playing behind arguably the greatest player to ever live. If CR7 played in any other era he would undoubtedly be the best player in the world. And who cares if he's motivated to be a better player because of his ego? If I'm building a team, I want players that want to be better and win games. CR7 does that. He's a top 5 player of all time and we are lucky to witness him and Messi at the same time.

Yeah, that's not true at all.
 

YNWA14

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Cristiano, quite easily honestly. R9 peak seasons aren't even as good as Cristiano's prime seasons. Sure he may have had more natural talent, but I've never seen anyone be as motivated to be the best like Cristiano is. Also props to Ronaldo for being able to adapt to being more of a poacher type player. That will honestly really help prolong his career at the top.

I think part of the problem is that people have a hard time separating talent from results. Flashy moves and exciting dribbles leading to spectacular goals stick with people a lot more than say a tap in, header or deflected shot.

The thing is that if it were so easy to do what R7 has done, wouldn't others do it? If it were so easy to just "feed" a single player on the team you'd see a lot of players with similar numbers. He's won a Euro, 3 CLs, many league and other trophies so can you really say this approach is hurting his team? In the meantime he's been one of the most effective scorers of all time. The work that he's put in to get on top of the soccer world is unparalleled.

People try to denigrate Ronaldo because of his "attitude", his "me first" mentality and his celebrity but the reality is that he is one of the very best players of all time. He deserves his accolades and success. Whether or not you agree with his personality or lifestyle shouldn't really come into it.

Anyway, it's R7.
 

The Abusement Park

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I think part of the problem is that people have a hard time separating talent from results. Flashy moves and exciting dribbles leading to spectacular goals stick with people a lot more than say a tap in, header or deflected shot.

The thing is that if it were so easy to do what R7 has done, wouldn't others do it? If it were so easy to just "feed" a single player on the team you'd see a lot of players with similar numbers. He's won a Euro, 3 CLs, many league and other trophies so can you really say this approach is hurting his team? In the meantime he's been one of the most effective scorers of all time. The work that he's put in to get on top of the soccer world is unparalleled.

People try to denigrate Ronaldo because of his "attitude", his "me first" mentality and his celebrity but the reality is that he is one of the very best players of all time. He deserves his accolades and success. Whether or not you agree with his personality or lifestyle shouldn't really come into it.

Anyway, it's R7.

100% agree with this.
 

Mount Suribachi

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Nov 15, 2013
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What's your top 5 again ? :laugh:

Whats so funny? Clearly many people in this thread have Messi, CR7, Maradonna and Pele as top 5 all time.

I've been watching football since the 70s, Maradonna, Messi and Christiano Ronaldo are on another plane from anyone else I've ever seen.
 

Evilo

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You'e watched football for 40 years but can't spell 2 of the 4 names you've given.

Ronaldo is not a top 5 player of all time. Probably not top 10.
 

Mount Suribachi

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You'e watched football for 40 years but can't spell 2 of the 4 names you've given.

Ronaldo is not a top 5 player of all time. Probably not top 10.

A laughing smiley and a complaint about my spelling - you're doing a real good job demolishing my arguments eh?
 

Evilo

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There's no need to demolish, you do it by yourself.
ChRISTIANO is not a top 5 player.
I'm among those that believe MaradonNa's career was overrated, but he's a top 5 player. Pele also.
I believe Messi is, but Cristiano isn't.
He was never THE deciding factor for winning a CL nor a WC, nor a EL
Pele won several WC.
Maradona won a WC by being amazing for two weeks.
Messi has won several CL while being the driving force, especially in the final.

And that's only legacy. In terms or talent, he's also nowhere near top 5.
Cruyff, Platini, and several others were better players.
 

Suiteness

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Ronaldo would have had an incredible career had he stayed at Barcelona. There are 2 sides to the story on why he left, 1) Inter Milan offered him insane amounts of money to him and his agent or 2) the Barcelona board at the time didn't fulfill certain promises made to him and Ronaldo took a great offer to leave since he felt slighted. Not sure, but it sounds like a little bit of both.

You have to keep in mind that Serie A, at the time, was by FAR the best league in the world, pretty much all the top players were over there. He was always going to end up in Italy.
 

les Habs

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I think part of the problem is that people have a hard time separating talent from results. Flashy moves and exciting dribbles leading to spectacular goals stick with people a lot more than say a tap in, header or deflected shot.

Just as a lot of people have trouble putting results into context and separating results from talent.

You have to keep in mind that Serie A, at the time, was by FAR the best league in the world, pretty much all the top players were over there. He was always going to end up in Italy.

No, he wasn't "always going to end up in Italy." There was an article out just the other day about the transfer and the player wasn't looking to leave at all.
 

The Abusement Park

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Just as a lot of people have trouble putting results into context and separating results from talent.

Having more talent doesn't make you a better player. Quaresma had more talent as a youth product than almost any player at the time, including Ronaldo. He's not the better player. Being a good player has to do with being motivated, having the IQ to read and adapt to the game, and obviously the amount of skill you have. R9 had more natural talent which is clear to see. But he isn't the better player.
 

Duchene2MacKinnon

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It's not that far off really. I mean Pele and Maradona obviously give him a run, but there's not many others I see as better than Ronaldo. He's truly a special talent and is a top 5-7 player of all time IMO.

Undoubtedly, the best player in any era is a lot different that him being a top 5-7 player. Neither of which is true (IMO) but one is more ridiculous than the other.
 

The Abusement Park

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Undoubtedly, the best player in any era is a lot different that him being a top 5-7 player. Neither of which is true (IMO) but one is more ridiculous than the other.

What other era's would he not be the best? Pele, Messi, and Maradona are the only players I consider better than CR7 to ever play the game. I just can't see who else would be put over CR7.
 

Duchene2MacKinnon

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It's hard enough comparing players from different era and I hate watching highlights of players and then claiming player X is better than player Y. Having said that, I'd be shocked is the likes of Cruyff and Stefano weren't in the conversation at least.
 

The Abusement Park

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http://bjjforum.com.br/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1063&start=6255

That might answer the question of how Ronaldo has looked like since his early-mid twenties.

It's hard enough comparing players from different era and I hate watching highlights of players and then claiming player X is better than player Y. Having said that, I'd be shocked is the likes of Cruyff and Stefano weren't in the conversation at least.

Cruyff I can definitely agree with. Stefano I'm not sure he's quite there but very close.
 

YNWA14

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What other era's would he not be the best? Pele, Messi, and Maradona are the only players I consider better than CR7 to ever play the game. I just can't see who else would be put over CR7.

Was Maradona really better? From what I've read and clips I've seen...

1) The defending at times was absolutely atrocious on him.

2) He was not consistently at an ATG level (and Evilo brings it up a lot).

Maybe Maradona at his peak was better but depending on what you define as peak you could say a lot of players have had better single tournaments or seasons than many of the all time best. For me what defines an 'all time great' is not how talented they were or how good they were at their peak...but how consistently good they were and how long their primes were. Trophies are not necessities but they help obviously.

You can definitely find more talented players than Ronaldo throughout history but how many can match his consistency and longevity at the top? He's brought trophies, titles and goals galore everywhere he's gone and his work ethic is second to none. I think it's fair to consider him a top 5 player all time.

But again I don't like to compare across generations for many different reasons. Structure, training, video, talent, diet, etc. etc. are all different. Natural progression would suggest that players are constantly getting better, with better training, more instruction, more athletic, better diets, etc. etc. etc.
 

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