Cristiano Ronaldo - Much Ado About Al Nassr

There was only ever a rivalry in Ronaldos eyes where he tried to prove he was better. I doubt Messi thought about a rivalry, he just did his own thing and in the end to the vast majority of football fans he was obviously much better in all ways, such a magical player.
He wasn't better in all ways objectively.
Headers and long range strikes aren't part of the game anymore?
Ronaldo at his peak could strike a dead ball from anywhere across the half. Messi is mostly close range.
Messi is more asthetically pleasing, fine but Ronaldo was better at some things too.
 
I'll be glad when the pair of them retire, because jesus it's so fecking dull listening to all the weirdos obsessing over whichever one is their favourite. if there's a more fecking boring topic of conversation than Ronaldo v Messi I've yet to hear it.

Who am I kidding? Even after they're both dead there'll still be the weirdo obsessives arguing over who did what, defending their hero to the death as if they're personally related to one of them.
 
I'll be glad when the pair of them retire, because jesus it's so fecking dull listening to all the weirdos obsessing over whichever one is their favourite. if there's a more fecking boring topic of conversation than Ronaldo v Messi I've yet to hear it.

Who am I kidding? Even after they're both dead there'll still be the weirdo obsessives arguing over who did what, defending their hero to the death as if they're personally related to one of them.

Anyone who uses the phrase 'GOAT' should be banned from the Internet. Also, bin off anyone who says 'Starboy' too.
 
I'll be glad when the pair of them retire, because jesus it's so fecking dull listening to all the weirdos obsessing over whichever one is their favourite. if there's a more fecking boring topic of conversation than Ronaldo v Messi I've yet to hear it.

Who am I kidding? Even after they're both dead there'll still be the weirdo obsessives arguing over who did what, defending their hero to the death as if they're personally related to one of them.
:lol: true
 
Cristiano: "Those that like me don't need to hate Messi, and vice versa. We both made history and changed the course of football, and we we've both been doing well [in MLS and Saudi Pro League], and we're respected throughout the entire world. There was a rivalry, there's no rivalry anymore, the fans loved it, but from our own perspective, it was always an healthy, respectful rivalry"

Source, translated by me: https://tvi.iol.pt/noticias/videos/...o-messi-e-vice-versa/64f8a92b0cf23250d7066a99

If only more people took it upon themselves to discuss both players fairly and with some rationale behind them. Don't wanna stir up more wildfires, but I subscribe to his words and wanted to share it here.

He is correct unfortunately he spent too much liking social media posts dissing Messi everytime Messi won a ballon d'or. Its been Ronnie largely talking about Messi when Messi has mainly gone quitely about doing his own thing.
 
just found out that he has more assists than Xavi, De Bruyne, and Ozil.

He was always a good to great passer. He spent most his career as a winger or wide forward which a prime position to rack up assists. Getting them from a cm position like Xavi is harder.
 
That's the sort of humility we've all come to expect from the GOAT

Considering the massive boner on his statue only someone with such a big willy can be secure within himself.
 
He wasn't better in all ways objectively.
Headers and long range strikes aren't part of the game anymore?
Ronaldo at his peak could strike a dead ball from anywhere across the half. Messi is mostly close range.
Messi is more asthetically pleasing, fine but Ronaldo was better at some things too.

And yet Messi has more goals outside the box than Cristiano, how is that then?
 
And yet Messi has more goals outside the box than Cristiano, how is that then?

Messi has scored more goals outside the box, but Ronnie has more rockets. Essentially Messi scores more goals outside the box but the ones Ronnie scores have a bigger wow factor.
 
Messi has scored more goals outside the box, but Ronnie has more rockets. Essentially Messi scores more goals outside the box but the ones Ronnie scores have a bigger wow factor.

Wow factor is subjective way of looking at Cristiano goals. As if Messi scores some lame outside the bxx goals when some of his goals are unbeliavable to accomplish.

But back to original statement: goals outside the box- Messi clear winner.
 
Before this previous world cup, Messi had no knockout goals in the world cup too despite featuring alongside world class attackers.
Its simple. Great football teams are about a lot of things. You could parade a good team and not have a good coach and vice versa.
Argentina was so solid recently that playing through them was a difficult task. They dont have as many illustrious names like the past but they simply work better as a unit.

Portugal has almost never had a really world class team after 2006. Most of their squad after then were mostly washed players.
They finally had an actually great team in 2022 but Ronaldo is too old to stand out now.
I doubt anyone believes Ronaldo Wouldnt have had outstanding world cups in teams like Spain or Germany.

Summarily, it's nearly rude to shit on his legacy for a world cup even Messi nearly missed out on.

Excuses. Point is he's had 5 world cups and isn't remembered for any of them. Even if he is remembered for doing something noteworthy in at least 1 out of 5 that would be okay (eg best player, top scorer, carried his team to semis / final, not get knocked out of group stage by USA, not get knocked out in round of 16 by Uruguay, not get knocked out of quarters by Morocco). But he hasn't had a single memorable world cup. Many of the greats or even lesser but quality players, even those from 2nd tier top countries, have done it but CR7 hasn't.

Of course he'd win with Spain and Germany. Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Brazil etc all had top players in every position when they won it in the 21st century.

Argentina's 2022 is different. They were not as strong as recent winners. Take Messi out and put Ronaldo or anybody else in, I doubt they would still win.
 
Yep I'd say that from personal experience :)

Its always hard to not entertain the thought of Messi having a micro penis because of his growth hormone deficiency probably because it wasnt treated in time. That was probably why he changed his clothes outside the dressing room and was labelled "the midget mute" in La Mazia. In some respects perhaps Messi outperformed on the pitch to detract from his possibly small penis.
 
There was only ever a rivalry in Ronaldos eyes where he tried to prove he was better. I doubt Messi thought about a rivalry, he just did his own thing and in the end to the vast majority of football fans he was obviously much better in all ways, such a magical player.

Messi talked publicly about hurting him to see Ronaldo lifting his 5th Ballon D'Or. It's quite clear they both fed on each other to keep going and both respect each other a lot and in their mind they were competing between themselves. I don't really know why that seems like a farfetched situation - like only Ronaldo saw this rivarly and not Messi. It's probably because of the persona they put out in public, but it's not like the "rivarly" only lived in one of them.

Edit: Messi probably the best out of the 2 from outside the box I have to admit as a Ronaldo fan, but as someone said, Ronaldo, specially in a certain 5-7 year period of his career, could come up with the kind of long range goals one would dream while in their sleep. And the positions from which he was scoring those long range strikes were just out of the ordinary, the kind of long range goals Messi could never score. He was scoring long range goals from positions most players wouldn't even dare to try, and he'd score 3 or 4 of those every single year. Then again, Messi could also easily score some long range goals that would be almost impossible for Ronnie. Oh well, both had unique things in their portfolio. Ronaldo's headers, long range goals, Messi with also making long range goals look like 8yd tap ins, and his ability to design, in his mind, and lead unique attacking plays, etc, I could spend all day here talking positively about the two of them.
 
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He wasn't better in all ways objectively.
Headers and long range strikes aren't part of the game anymore?
Ronaldo at his peak could strike a dead ball from anywhere across the half. Messi is mostly close range.
Messi is more asthetically pleasing, fine but Ronaldo was better at some things too.

Absolute drivel. Messi’s scored a lot more goals from outside the box than Ronaldo ever has, and with a fraction of the attempts too.

How did this myth about Ronaldo being better from distance ever come about?
 
How long before Portugal drop him again?

Or is he genuinely going to be their starting CF at the euros......?
 
Absolute drivel. Messi’s scored a lot more goals from outside the box than Ronaldo ever has, and with a fraction of the attempts too.

How did this myth about Ronaldo being better from distance ever come about?
Outside the box is different from longer range strikes.
Excuses. Point is he's had 5 world cups and isn't remembered for any of them. Even if he is remembered for doing something noteworthy in at least 1 out of 5 that would be okay (eg best player, top scorer, carried his team to semis / final, not get knocked out of group stage by USA, not get knocked out in round of 16 by Uruguay, not get knocked out of quarters by Morocco). But he hasn't had a single memorable world cup. Many of the greats or even lesser but quality players, even those from 2nd tier top countries, have done it but CR7 hasn't.

Of course he'd win with Spain and Germany. Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Brazil etc all had top players in every position when they won it in the 21st century.

Argentina's 2022 is different. They were not as strong as recent winners. Take Messi out and put Ronaldo or anybody else in, I doubt they would still win.
Not going to go into the argument but anyone should good team supercedes a team with individual names.
Argentina went on a 30 plus games unbeaten run. Certainly more to do with the team than the quality of a single individual.
In 2014 Portugal got steamed 4 nil in the opening fixture, I doubt there's much a single striker could do.
 
And yet Messi has more goals outside the box than Cristiano, how is that then?
I mentioned Ronaldo has a more diverse array of freekicks from any angle or distance at his peak.
Messi would never score the one against Almunia in 2009. Thats a fact.
At their peak they were both roughly as effective and thats why they mostly stood toe to toe in a lot of Elclassico.
People expect every player to have the same asthetics or close control as Messi, but thats impossible for a player over 6 ft with a higher center of gravity. He's definitely going to be different and outstanding in his own way.

People are not Objective to expect a 6ft2 player to have the ball glued to his feet, and not rely a lot on his physicality.
 
I'll be glad when the pair of them retire, because jesus it's so fecking dull listening to all the weirdos obsessing over whichever one is their favourite. if there's a more fecking boring topic of conversation than Ronaldo v Messi I've yet to hear it.

Who am I kidding? Even after they're both dead there'll still be the weirdo obsessives arguing over who did what, defending their hero to the death as if they're personally related to one of them.
Most likely it will continue between Haaland and Mbappe
 
just found out that he has more assists than Xavi, De Bruyne, and Ozil.

If you play in higher areas of the pitch you're going to get assists regardless, Haaland has plenty of assists too despite not being particularly good at passing. Also Ronaldo just has more of all stats in total, what tends to happen when you play 1,213 senior games. I always associated Maldini and Giggs with being the longevity kings but Ronaldo has now played the equivalent of 4 full seasons more than those players. Giggs also has 60 more PL assists than De Bruyne but doesn't mean he's a better passer, he's just played 350 more games.
 
If you play in higher areas of the pitch you're going to get assists regardless, Haaland has plenty of assists too despite not being particularly good at passing. Also Ronaldo just has more of all stats in total, what tends to happen when you play 1,213 senior games. I always associated Maldini and Giggs with being the longevity kings but Ronaldo has now played the equivalent of 4 full seasons more than those players. Giggs also has 60 more PL assists than De Bruyne but doesn't mean he's a better passer, he's just played 350 more games.

It's accumulation. A lot more prevalent in baseball where they play 162 games a season but as you say past a certain point if you stay reasonably productive, sheer volume will do it. That's not even to denigrate it, keeping fit for so long is a quality of its own.
 
If you play in higher areas of the pitch you're going to get assists regardless, Haaland has plenty of assists too despite not being particularly good at passing. Also Ronaldo just has more of all stats in total, what tends to happen when you play 1,213 senior games. I always associated Maldini and Giggs with being the longevity kings but Ronaldo has now played the equivalent of 4 full seasons more than those players. Giggs also has 60 more PL assists than De Bruyne but doesn't mean he's a better passer, he's just played 350 more games.

watched some videos of his passing and assists compilation after learning that he ranks 5th in assists (counted assists). His through balls, lob passes, crosses, and long passes were truly impressive. Sometimes I forget just how insane he was/is, and wonder if I am being influenced by those who do not appreciate his career.
 
I mentioned Ronaldo has a more diverse array of freekicks from any angle or distance at his peak.
Messi would never score the one against Almunia in 2009. Thats a fact.
At their peak they were both roughly as effective and thats why they mostly stood toe to toe in a lot of Elclassico.
People expect every player to have the same asthetics or close control as Messi, but thats impossible for a player over 6 ft with a higher center of gravity. He's definitely going to be different and outstanding in his own way.

People are not Objective to expect a 6ft2 player to have the ball glued to his feet, and not rely a lot on his physicality.

And vice versa. How you expect Messi to have same jump and header ability when he's much shorter than Cristiano?

Cristiano has done great job in keeping up with Messi and it's testament to his work ethic and power of will to be considered as someone who rivals Messi.

But overall Messi is better player and always has been no matter what Cristiano did.
 
I mentioned Ronaldo has a more diverse array of freekicks from any angle or distance at his peak.
Messi would never score the one against Almunia in 2009. Thats a fact.
At their peak they were both roughly as effective and thats why they mostly stood toe to toe in a lot of Elclassico.
People expect every player to have the same asthetics or close control as Messi, but thats impossible for a player over 6 ft with a higher center of gravity. He's definitely going to be different and outstanding in his own way.

People are not Objective to expect a 6ft2 player to have the ball glued to his feet, and not rely a lot on his physicality.

Ronaldo sort of matched Messi for goals in the classicos but Messi literally has more than 10 times the assists as well. Ronaldo has 1 assist in 30 matches in the classico.
 
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and thats why they mostly stood toe to toe in a lot of Elclassico.


only someone who doesn’t love the beauty of the game or really insane could say that Ronaldo was anywhere near Messi’s level in anyof the classicos even the ones he won ….
Once again stats never tells you the truth like the game 2-2 where messi scored a magisterial free kick … both scored 2 goals yeah but Messi was 10x better on the field
 
Quality control
I already mentioned in the Messi thread that CR7 is more than just the goat. Just look at what he did in Iran!
They said on Iranian television that not even the Persian King Chosrau would be received like that. Crowds greeted him at the airport. Crowds chased his bus all the way to the hotel. Have gathered on hills. Completely surrounded his hotel. The hotel door was “peacefully” broken down and hundreds of people stormed into the lobby shouting “Ronaldo”.

Red carpets may be rolled out for Messi. Entire streets were resurfaced for Ronaldo's arrival. That's insane! (Although I wish they had taken more care of the football pitch.) The whole city was full of Ronaldo posters. He is welcomed with noble gifts...

Imagine that your absolute arch-enemy comes to your country with his football team, defeats you and the CEO of the home club (Persepolis, the Iranian FC Bayern) has nothing better to do and wants a photo with the enemy's players. This is the Ronaldo impact!
The CEO after the game: “Congratulations to the world team on their victory. Al-Nasr is a team that has been invested in and their circumstances are certainly better than ours.”

Unfortunately, the game took place without spectators due to an AFC ban. But that didn't stop the Iranians from gathering in front of the stadium and waiting for Ronaldo and accompanying him to the airport on motorcycle convoys. As if they were celebrating their defeat. That's crazy.

I have often said that the potential in Asia is simply gigantic. The people there simply long for stars and top-class football. When will the people there have the opportunity to see someone like CR7, Benzema or Neymar?
 
Ole basically admitting the signing was a mistake which most of us agree with now.

I remember a thread on here saying that the Ronaldo signing would be a huge mistake and people absolutely wrecked his/her point of view, probably i did too as I defended him a lot and I still think he was a problem not THE problem. Apologies to that person who created the thread.
 
Ole basically admitting the signing was a mistake which most of us agree with now.

I remember a thread on here saying that the Ronaldo signing would be a huge mistake and people absolutely wrecked his/her point of view, probably i did too as I defended him a lot and I still think he was a problem not THE problem. Apologies to that person who created the thread.

But he has the heart of lion!
 
He wasn't better in all ways objectively.
Headers and long range strikes aren't part of the game anymore?
Ronaldo at his peak could strike a dead ball from anywhere across the half. Messi is mostly close range.
Messi is more asthetically pleasing, fine but Ronaldo was better at some things too.

I'm almost certain Messi has scored more goals from outside the box than Ronaldo. Never mind discussing deadballs, when Messi is by far a better freekick taker the last 5 years than Ronaldo has ever been.
 
I already mentioned in the Messi thread that CR7 is more than just the goat. Just look at what he did in Iran!
They said on Iranian television that not even the Persian King Chosrau would be received like that. Crowds greeted him at the airport. Crowds chased his bus all the way to the hotel. Have gathered on hills. Completely surrounded his hotel. The hotel door was “peacefully” broken down and hundreds of people stormed into the lobby shouting “Ronaldo”.

Red carpets may be rolled out for Messi. Entire streets were resurfaced for Ronaldo's arrival. That's insane! (Although I wish they had taken more care of the football pitch.) The whole city was full of Ronaldo posters. He is welcomed with noble gifts...

Imagine that your absolute arch-enemy comes to your country with his football team, defeats you and the CEO of the home club (Persepolis, the Iranian FC Bayern) has nothing better to do and wants a photo with the enemy's players. This is the Ronaldo impact!
The CEO after the game: “Congratulations to the world team on their victory. Al-Nasr is a team that has been invested in and their circumstances are certainly better than ours.”

Unfortunately, the game took place without spectators due to an AFC ban. But that didn't stop the Iranians from gathering in front of the stadium and waiting for Ronaldo and accompanying him to the airport on motorcycle convoys. As if they were celebrating their defeat. That's crazy.

I have often said that the potential in Asia is simply gigantic. The people there simply long for stars and top-class football. When will the people there have the opportunity to see someone like CR7, Benzema or Neymar?
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