Ballon d'Or 2016

[Ronaldo's Mum Eh?]

The best 9 of all time in my view.

Ronnie, would be in the top 20 players, just.

Football did exist before the 21st century, believe it or not.

Ronnie is in the top 3 players of ALL TIME. Talk to me when any of the players you mentioned scores at the consistency as him, not to mention is amongst one of the highest assisters in the CL.

 

[SalfordRed1960]

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Well done. Doesn't really matter who he plays for now, it is some achievement to win it 4 times.

Messi and Ronaldo have been impressive in keeping such a high standard for so long.

Wonder who is going to be the new kid on the block next year as I think we will now start seeing a new name. Wonder if the coaches around the world watch any teams other than Barca and Real Madrid. Obviously they have some of the best players in the world, but there are other teams that have some outstanding players.

 

[Redondo_Pirri]

Ronnie is in the top 3 players of ALL TIME. Talk to me when any of the players you mentioned scores at the consistency as him, not to mention is amongst one of the highest assisters in the CL.

Exactly most assists and most goals in the UCL, most goals ever for Real Madrid, first player to ever go 6 seasons in a row with 50+ goals. I'm not sure about top 3 but top 5 for sure, Pele, Maradona, Messi, Di Stefano and Cristiano in no particular order.

 

[Gandalf Greyhame]

This thread is like who's having a bigger dick. When the measurement is out then the argument moved to who's having the bigger circumference, girdth, etc

While in truth none of the dicks belongs to any of you.

In short you're arguing about other people's dick

 

[Treble]

Well Van Basten's story is always coloured by the fact he retired through injury upon turning just 28. If you're comparing their career goals outputs, Cristiano has impressively rattled in another 200 goals since he turned 28 so it's not like for like. Even moreso when you factor in Van Basten spent his best years at the defensively toughest league of all time, where you could win the league as Milan did by netting just 36 goals.

And if you're comparing their respective international records, Van Basten wins out. He played in 3 major tournaments - was the indisputable star of one, was injured in the next one, and played very well in the last one. Ronaldo has been much more inconsistent and has had 7 bites at the cherry and not yet delivered anything close to what Van Basten did in 1988. Not that he's been crap, as he was good in 2004 and 2006, and has had the intermittent good performance thereafter, but Van Basten's impact was much clearer. That's what he needed to do to be considered amongst the greatest of all time despite retiring at such a young age.

Van Basten played in all 4 Netherlands games in Italy '90 and was very underwhelming. Then he played in all their games in Euro'92 and not only failed to score a single goal but missed a crucial penalty as well. In other words, he had 8 consecutive games without a goal at big tournaments. All in all, he scored 5 goals in 13 games in big international competitions. That's unimpressive for a CF.

Van Basten was one of my favourite players when I was growing up but Ronaldo is better and it isn't even close. The only thing that Van Basten has over Ronaldo is elegance. He was a more elegant and aesthetically pleasing player (when at his best). He had a magnificent right foot and was a fantastic header of the ball. But so is C. Ronaldo. Ronaldo is a more complete forward though: unlike Van Basten he is two-footed, very quick and dynamic, far more athletic and hungry, could play any forward role (winger, CF, SS), contributes much more outside the penalty box, is a better dribbler (in his early 20s), is better at set pieces and is far more productive. Van Basten wasn't an exceptionally prolific striker. His numbers in Seria A in his prime (89-92):

19, 19, 11, 25.

That's nor particularly great even when one takes in consideration the fact that Seria A was a very strong and defensively minded league. Why? Because he was outscored in some of these seasons by forwards like Serena, Vialli and Signori who weren't exactly world beaters. Signori scored 26 goals in 1993 and that's more than Van Basten ever managed in Seria A. Actually, Van Basten scored only once 20+ league goals in Seria A. Needless to say that C. Ronaldo would have shit on Serena and Signori big time.

Again, it's not close at all. Ronaldo is in a different league to Van Basten. If Van Basten had a rival like Messi back then, he wouldn't have won 2 let alone 4 Ballon d'Ors. (Maradona wasn't eligible for Ballon d'Or.)

 

[Rossa]

Someone arguing that Van Basten was better than Ronaldo? Ok

 

[Vato]

For all your stats, the only one that matters is who won, and that was Ronaldo. By 400 points.

Boom

 

[VanGaalEra]

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[Devil81]

If Ronaldo won this award off his contribution to the two successes, then Pepe should have been second.

Griezmann would have been my pick personally.

 

[Culero]

No doubt. It's called bias

Your a Real Madrid fan and you call me biased?

 

[Rossa]

Lewandowski coming 16th having been Bayern's top scorer, the first player since Gerd Muller to score 30 in a season and a leader of Poland national team who did better than at any point during the last 30 years, is a bit amazing. How the hell did Vardy get ahead of him, and by 8 places too

Vardy is faster so probably ran past him. Struggle coming up with better answers for that.

 

[Gio]

Van Basten played in all 4 Netherlands games in Italy '90 and was very underwhelming. Then he played in all their games in Euro'92 and not only failed to score a single goal but missed a crucial penalty as well. In other words, he had 8 consecutive games without a goal at big tournaments. All in all, he scored 5 goals in 13 games in big international competitions. That's unimpressive for a CF.

He was injured in 1990 as I've already said which was the reason behind his poor tournament. He performed well in 1992 and oozed class - watch again some of the games - and despite not scoring was in the UEFA Team of the Tournament. It's very difficult to make a case that Ronaldo has had a better international career.

Van Basten was one of my favourite players when I was growing up but Ronaldo is better and it isn't even close. The only thing that Van Basten has over Ronaldo is elegance. He was a more elegant and aesthetically pleasing player (when at his best). He had a magnificent right foot and was a fantastic header of the ball. But so is C. Ronaldo. Ronaldo is a more complete forward though: unlike Van Basten he is two-footed, very quick and dynamic, far more athletic and hungry, could play any forward role (winger, CF, SS), contributes much more outside the penalty box, is a better dribbler (in his early 20s), is better at set pieces and is far more productive. Van Basten wasn't an exceptionally prolific striker. His numbers in Seria A in his prime (89-92):

19, 19, 11, 25.

That's nor particularly great even when one takes in consideration the fact that Seria A was a very strong and defensively minded league. Why? Because he was outscored in some of these seasons by forwards like Serena, Vialli and Signori who weren't exactly world beaters. Signori scored 26 goals in 1993 and that's more than Van Basten ever managed in Seria A. Actually, Van Basten scored only once 20+ league goals in Seria A. Needless to say that C. Ronaldo would have shit on Serena and Signori big time.

Again, it's not close at all. Ronaldo is in a different league to Van Basten. If Van Basten had a rival like Messi back then, he wouldn't have won 2 let alone 4 Ballon d'Ors. (Maradona wasn't eligible for Ballon d'Or.)

I've not even said anything about Van Basten being better or worse than Ronaldo. All I'm dealing with is the myths and lack of context when comparing numbers. The only season Beppe Signori outscored him was 1992/93 when Marco Van Basten had to retire midway through after 13 in the first 15 games. As for the likes of Vialli and Serena, you can easily spin that around and state that he consistently outscored the likes of Maradona, Baggio and Batistuta. I hear the same argument about Bierhoff and Ronaldo in Serie A but it fails to take account of the greater competitiveness between teams within the same league. His only poor season at Milan was 1990/91 when he struggled with his ankle and Milan started to wane under Sacchi. Otherwise his performances and goal return were as good as could have been expected in that era. The fact that Serie A was a very strong league with quality spread throughout the division means that nobody was able to rack up near maximum points and 100+ goals in a particular season - which made it a lot more difficult to bang in lots of goals. It also meant that there were multiple teams competing for the title and, in the other teams, their respective centre-forwards were getting the same sorts of chances as Milan's strikers. It's a much different environment to today where if you don't play for the incredibly dominant Barcelona and Real in La Liga, it's a lot, lot harder to put up big numbers.

Comparing them as players you're not too far off. Van Basten was two-footed though, was technically flawless and contributed more outside the box than Ronaldo. Athleticism, dynamism, longevity are all in Ronaldo's favour though. Where they sit in the all-time stakes is perhaps more contentious though and depends on what you value. I'd consider Van Basten as one of the top 3-4 centre-forwards of all time and I'd put Cristiano Ronaldo as one of the top 3 players who could fill a left-sided attacking berth of all time.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

Only a crackhead would rate MVB higher than Ronaldo but I know what some are like on here.

 

[Acrobat7]

Lewandowski coming 16th having been Bayern's top scorer, the first player since Gerd Muller to score 30 in a season and a leader of Poland national team who did better than at any point during the last 30 years, is a bit amazing. How the hell did Vardy get ahead of him, and by 8 places too

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[Treble]

He was injured in 1990 as I've already said which was the reason behind his poor tournament. He performed well in 1992 and oozed class - watch again some of the games - and despite not scoring was in the UEFA Team of the Tournament. It's very difficult to make a case that Ronaldo has had a better international career.


I've not even said anything about Van Basten being better or worse than Ronaldo. All I'm dealing with is the myths and lack of context when comparing numbers. The only season Beppe Signori outscored him was 1992/93 when Marco Van Basten had to retire midway through after 13 in the first 15 games. As for the likes of Vialli and Serena, you can easily spin that around and state that he consistently outscored the likes of Maradona, Baggio and Batistuta. I hear the same argument about Bierhoff and Ronaldo in Serie A but it fails to take account of the greater competitiveness between teams within the same league. His only poor season at Milan was 1990/91 when he struggled with his ankle and Milan started to wane under Sacchi. Otherwise his performances and goal return were as good as could have been expected in that era. The fact that Serie A was a very strong league with quality spread throughout the division means that nobody was able to rack up near maximum points and 100+ goals in a particular season - which made it a lot more difficult to bang in lots of goals. It also meant that there were multiple teams competing for the title and, in the other teams, their respective centre-forwards were getting the same sorts of chances as Milan's strikers. It's a much different environment to today where if you don't play for the incredibly dominant Barcelona and Real in La Liga, it's a lot, lot harder to put up big numbers.

Comparing them as players you're not too far off. Van Basten was two-footed though, was technically flawless and contributed more outside the box than Ronaldo. Athleticism, dynamism, longevity are all in Ronaldo's favour though. Where they sit in the all-time stakes is perhaps more contentious though and depends on what you value. I'd consider Van Basten as one of the top 3-4 centre-forwards of all time and I'd put Cristiano Ronaldo as one of the top 3 players who could fill a left-sided attacking berth of all time.

Fact is, Van Basten struggled to outscore strikers in Seria A who weren't world class. One can't imagine the same happening to C. Ronaldo. The example with Van Basten outscoring Maradona and Batistita is poor as Maradona wasn't a striker and Batistuta was very young (21-23 y.o.) back then. The examples with Serena and Signori provide the much needed context. They show that it wasn't that difficult to score 20+ goals in Seria A at the time and the fact that Van Basten did it only once there is a big minus in my book. Even in his prime he was nowhere near C. Ronaldo consistency wise. And Milan weren't just a very good side in a strong league.They are regarded as one of the top 5-6 club teams of all time, and thus better than Ronaldo's Madrid. To play for such a great side and fail to score 20+ league goals at least 2-3 times is a bit underwheling. In his prime, Signori scored 20+ league goals 3 times in 4 seasons (92-96). His numbers show that you can't explain away the slightly unimpressive stats that Van Basten had in Seria A by referring to the peculiarities of the Italian league.

 

[legolegs]

Because the consensus amongst the majority of players, coaches and journalists of who the best player over the course of the entire year was is interesting.

No because people are insecure and need others to back up their opinion.

 

[legolegs]

Getting to the point where Ronaldo, in particular, has more Dor's than he deserves, when placed in the context of former greats who have won 1,2 or 3 for example.

Is he better than Marco Van Basten was, not in a million years.

To be honest I don't really know why you decided to choose van Basten to make this point. Cruijff has exactly the same amount of bdo awards and van Basten isn't even close to him. Good example to tell that the number of awards doesn't say anything about the players quality btw.

 

[TheNewEra]

van Basten was great but Ronaldo is a tier above him, longevity, speed, skill. van Basten had wonderful technique and he's an iconic player but the comparison between Ronaldo and van Basten is the same to me between Ronaldo and Messi, they on two different tiers.

 

[squiggle]

Getting to the point where Ronaldo, in particular, has more Dor's than he deserves, when placed in the context of former greats who have won 1,2 or 3 for example.

Is he better than Marco Van Basten was, not in a million years.

Neither Ronaldo nor Messi is better than many (all?) of those who won fewer Ballon d'Ors in the past. In recent years it's become a contest between the two. That doesn't mean they're not both still great.

 

[Devil81]

Only a crackhead would rate MVB higher than Ronaldo but I know what some are like on here.

Van Basten was out of this world before his injury, I wouldn't say you need to be a crackhead to say he was better.

 

[squiggle]

Was Ronaldo even better than Messi in la Liga or the CL?

Yes.

 

[Raul Madrid]

No because people are insecure and need others to back up their opinion.

Based on what? I have seen nothing to suggest posters here are insecure and need others to back up their opinion. Speak for yourself.

 

[Gio]

Fact is, Van Basten struggled to outscore strikers in Seria A who weren't world class. One can't imagine the same happening to C. Ronaldo. The example with Van Basten outscoring Maradona and Batistita is poor as Maradona wasn't a striker and Batistuta was very young (21-23 y.o.) back then. The examples with Serena and Signori provide the much needed context. They show that it wasn't that difficult to score 20+ goals in Seria A at the time and the fact that Van Basten did it only once there is a big minus in my book. Even in his prime he was nowhere near C. Ronaldo consistency wise. And Milan weren't just a very good side in a strong league.They are regarded as one of the top 5-6 club teams of all time, and thus better than Ronaldo's Madrid. To play for such a great side and fail to score 20+ league goals at least 2-3 times is a bit underwheling. In his prime, Signori scored 20+ league goals 3 times in 4 seasons (92-96). His numbers show that you can't explain away the slightly unimpressive stats that Van Basten had in Seria A by referring to the peculiarities of the Italian league.

I'm not really sure where you're getting at with Signori. Stick him through the middle up top for Barcelona and he's netting at least 30 goals a season, probably more. He was a tremendous finisher with a devastating left peg. He never managed to outscore Van Basten, but I'd rank him higher than Higuain for example, who did manage to outscore Ronaldo in 2010.

As for Van Basten's goalscoring record in Italy, after his first injury-wrecked season, it was 47/33, 40/24, 35/11, 38/29 and 22/20. The 25 league goals he scored in 1991-92 was the highest scored in Serie A in almost 30 years. Only that poor season in the middle, but otherwise very tasty for such a defensive and competitive league, in a much more defender-friendly era. Or to put it another way, the season before he retired Milan scored 74 goals in the league. Without his services the season after he retired, they managed just 36 goals. Still won the league but lost more than half of their entire attacking output. And even taking into account the lower standard, his record at Ajax is tasty as well - 26/28, 33/22, 26/37, 27/31. Fundamentally I don't see Van Basten's productivity, or perceived lack of, as a weakness. It's certainly no barrier to him being considered among the very best because people recognise it was a much tougher era to rack up the numbers in. That's why he is regarded in the top bracket of strikers, alongside the likes of Puskas, Romario, Muller, Eusebio, all of whom scored 2-4 times as many goals in their careers.

 

[Skorenzy]

@Treble @Gio

Back-pass rule made Signori score more in 92/93 than Van Basten previously.
QED. (in my opinion anyway)


[SERIE A EXPANDED FROM 16 TO 18 TEAMS]

*1988/89 (18 teams) 2.11 GPG
- Serena, 22
- Careca, 19
- Van Basten, 19
- Baggio, 15

*1989/90 (18 teams) 2.24 GPG
- Van Basten, 19
- Baggio, 17
- Maradona, 16
- Schillaci, 15

*1990/91 (18 teams) 2.29 GPG
- Vialli, 19
- Matthäus, 16
- Aguilera, 15
- Skuhravý, 15

*1991/92 (18 teams) 2.27 GPG
- Van Basten, 25
- Baggio, 18
- Baiano, 16
- Careca, 15

[BACK-PASS RULE INTRODUCED IN 1992]

*1992/93 (18 teams) 2.80 GPG
- Signori, 26
- Baggio, 21
- Balbo, 21
- Sosa, 20
- Batistuta, 16
- Fonseca, 16
- Mancini, 15

*1993/94 (18 teams) 2.42 GPG
- Signori, 23
- Zola, 18
- Baggio, 17
- Silenzi, 17
- Sosa, 16
- Fonseca, 15
- Gullit, 15

[3PTS FOR A WIN INTRODUCED IN 1994]

*1994/95 (18 teams) 2.53 GPG
- Batistuta, 26
- Balbo, 22
- Rizzitelli, 19
- Zola, 19
- Signori, 17
- Simone, 17
- Tovalieri, 17
- Vialli, 17
- Ravanelli, 15

*1995/96 (18 teams) 2.63 GPG
- Protti, 24
- Signori, 24
- Chiesa, 22
- Batistuta, 19
- Branca, 19
- Bierhoff, 17
- Luís Oliveira, 16

[BOSMAN RULING IN EFFECT AS OF 15.12.1995]

*1996/97 (18 teams) 2.64 GPG
- F.Inzaghi, 24
- Montella, 22
- Balbo, 17
- Tovalieri, 16
- Signori, 15
- Negri, 15
- Mancini, 15

*1997/98 (18 teams) 2.77 GPG
- Bierhoff, 27
- Ronaldo, 25
- Baggio, 22
- Batistuta, 21
- Del Piero, 21
- Montella, 20
- F.Inzaghi, 18
- Hübner, 16
- Luís Oliveira, 15

etc.

 

[Gio]

@Skorenzy Well yes there was a raft of changes at that time - 3 points for a win, backpass rule, outlaw of the tackle from behind, crackdown on the foul play that plagued the 1980s and culminated in Italia '90.

 

[Skorenzy]

@Skorenzy Well yes there was a raft of changes at that time - 3 points for a win, backpass rule, outlaw of the tackle from behind, crackdown on the foul play that plagued the 1980s and culminated in Italia '90.

Yup, my comment was obviously facetious but just to point out that goalscoring can never really be taken out of context (as you similarly remarked in your posts) -- the misuse of stats in modern football debate annoys me to no end.

 

[EyeInTheSky]

Lionel won the hearts of the people the greatest award

 

[Xcited]

Lionel won the hearts of the people the greatest award

Wonderful.

 

[giorno]

Nonsense. He was their single creative hub in every match. Opposition regularly committed multiple players closing him down, and his teammates were absolutely horrible, no movement at all.

No, not really. Messi marked himself out of those games. Argentina's defence got them to the final. Messi had chances to score in each game, he fluffed them all and did absolutely nothing. Argentina would have won the WC regardless of messi had it not been for Di Maria's injury

As for Messi not being the main reason for Barcelona winning so much, sorry but that is hilarious.

Not really what i'm saying but no matter. My point is, take messi out of that barcelona, they still win at least half the stuff they won with him. Put messi on, say, Borussia Dortmund, he wins less than half of what he's won with barcelona, and he doesn't score 50+ goals a season

As for the guys comparing cristiano to marco van basten...c'mon guys only someone who's never seen van basten can even make the comparison

 

[giorno]

Ronnie is in the top 3 players of ALL TIME. Talk to me when any of the players you mentioned scores at the consistency as him, not to mention is amongst one of the highest assisters in the CL.

Gerd Muller must be the GOAT then

 

[giorno]

Your a Real Madrid fan and you call me biased?

Yep. Because unlike you, I tend to be objective when having a serious discussion about football. Comparing messi and cristiano is both stupid(at the respective best, they are not even in the same league) and kinda unfair to cristiano. But to say that Messi's the reason for barcelona's domination when actual evidence points the other way is either bias, or plain incompetence

 

[711]

Interesting that if either Messi or Ronaldo had not existed then the other might have won 7 or 8 times.
Maybe the same could be said for other players, historically?

 

[steffyr2]

Hes defnitely better than van baston.

Yep. Because unlike you, I tend to be objective when having a serious discussion about football. Comparing messi and cristiano is both stupid(at the respective best, they are not even in the same league) and kinda unfair to cristiano. But to say that Messi's the reason for barcelona's domination when actual evidence points the other way is either bias, or plain incompetence

When other players won the Ballon D'or, was their such a hue and cry about all the players they aren't better than? Here we have pages and pages of players no one really thinks about much anymore, and why they were better than Ronaldo back in their day looooong ago. No pages of who Ronaldo is better than though.....

I read part of something by Graham Hunter (and I don't even know who he is really). Messi's mom probably isn't as bitter.

 

[Treble]

@Treble @Gio

Back-pass rule made Signori score more in 92/93 than Van Basten previously.
QED. (in my opinion anyway)

Thanks for the stats. But I wouldn't agree with your conclusion. Season 91-92 Milan were scoring a lot of goals compared to the other teams, Van Basten scored 25 from 74 league goals. The next season teams were scoring more goals on average but Lazio scored less goals than Milan did the previous season and thus Signori scored 26 from 65 league goals for Lazio. 26 from 65 seems more impressive than 25 from 74. Again, this does not mean that Signori was as good as Van Basten or even close to him but it puts in context MVB's achievements and shows that he wasn't significantly more productive than the other goalscorers in Seria A despite the fact that Milan were one hell of a team back then. One 20+ season in the league isn't a brilliant achievement for a CF from a GOAT perspective.

 

[Treble]

I'm not really sure where you're getting at with Signori. Stick him through the middle up top for Barcelona and he's netting at least 30 goals a season, probably more. He was a tremendous finisher with a devastating left peg. He never managed to outscore Van Basten, but I'd rank him higher than Higuain for example, who did manage to outscore Ronaldo in 2010.

As for Van Basten's goalscoring record in Italy, after his first injury-wrecked season, it was 47/33, 40/24, 35/11, 38/29 and 22/20. The 25 league goals he scored in 1991-92 was the highest scored in Serie A in almost 30 years. Only that poor season in the middle, but otherwise very tasty for such a defensive and competitive league, in a much more defender-friendly era. Or to put it another way, the season before he retired Milan scored 74 goals in the league. Without his services the season after he retired, they managed just 36 goals. Still won the league but lost more than half of their entire attacking output. And even taking into account the lower standard, his record at Ajax is tasty as well - 26/28, 33/22, 26/37, 27/31. Fundamentally I don't see Van Basten's productivity, or perceived lack of, as a weakness. It's certainly no barrier to him being considered among the very best because people recognise it was a much tougher era to rack up the numbers in. That's why he is regarded in the top bracket of strikers, alongside the likes of Puskas, Romario, Muller, Eusebio, all of whom scored 2-4 times as many goals in their careers.

I've already explained why I've referred to Serena, Vialli and Signori and I've already answered your points. Van Basten struggled to stand out among very good but generally non-special strikers in Seria A (in terms of goals) despite playing for one of the best club teams ever. This is not something that applies to Ronaldo apart form his first season at Real when he missed many games through injury and wasn't even a striker. And still managed more league goals than Van Basten ever did in a top league (26 vs 25).

 

[Infordin]

Cristiano Ronaldo on if he & Lionel Messi played on the same side: "It'd be interesting to see both of us in the same team. I think great players should play together. So if we're in the same team, I think I'd have more Ballon d'Ors than him, but he wouldn't be far off."

http://www.marca.com/futbol/real-madrid/2016/12/13/584f942cca474182078b4669.html

Bruh

 

[Moby]

contributed more outside the box than Ronaldo.

That would only be true if you take into account the current Ronaldo - though that aspect is always overstated but the earlier version of Ronaldo who played for United easily contributed far, far more, especially the 06-07 season when he was as creative as a winger can get. It's one of Ronaldo's biggest strong points, unlike a lot of other 'GOAT' contenders he had several different phases of his game throughout his career which has been over a decade now since he started being looked at as one of the best players in the world and has maintained the high standards in all those incarnations. It's comparable to someone like Pelé if you take into account the consistency and fitting into all those roles seamlessly under different systems which is the absolute highest praise one can give. It really does separate him from the pack.

 

[RedPnutz]

Ronaldo misses his penalty in the CL final and Portugal loses in penalties against France, Ronaldo doesn't win the Ballon Dor.

But he didn't. Funny how that worked out.

 

[Sparky10Legend]

Of course he is. He can score goals at the rate of Van Basten and offer more threat all over the pitch. When you got an athlete, incredibly skilful winger who can also score as much as a striker, what makes Van Basten better may I ask? Ronaldo has 3 Champions League has he not and broken all kinds of goals coring records.
How has Ronaldo won more than he deserves? The fact it is voted neutrally and he beats Messi to it, or at least rivals him speaks volumes. Messi is arguably the GOAT and Ronaldo has rivalled him all the way.

Incredible skills?

Van Basten played in all 4 Netherlands games in Italy '90 and was very underwhelming. Then he played in all their games in Euro'92 and not only failed to score a single goal but missed a crucial penalty as well. In other words, he had 8 consecutive games without a goal at big tournaments. All in all, he scored 5 goals in 13 games in big international competitions. That's unimpressive for a CF.

Van Basten was one of my favourite players when I was growing up but Ronaldo is better and it isn't even close. The only thing that Van Basten has over Ronaldo is elegance. He was a more elegant and aesthetically pleasing player (when at his best). He had a magnificent right foot and was a fantastic header of the ball. But so is C. Ronaldo. Ronaldo is a more complete forward though: unlike Van Basten he is two-footed, very quick and dynamic, far more athletic and hungry, could play any forward role (winger, CF, SS), contributes much more outside the penalty box, is a better dribbler (in his early 20s), is better at set pieces and is far more productive. Van Basten wasn't an exceptionally prolific striker. His numbers in Seria A in his prime (89-92):

19, 19, 11, 25.

That's nor particularly great even when one takes in consideration the fact that Seria A was a very strong and defensively minded league. Why? Because he was outscored in some of these seasons by forwards like Serena, Vialli and Signori who weren't exactly world beaters. Signori scored 26 goals in 1993 and that's more than Van Basten ever managed in Seria A. Actually, Van Basten scored only once 20+ league goals in Seria A. Needless to say that C. Ronaldo would have shit on Serena and Signori big time.

Again, it's not close at all. Ronaldo is in a different league to Van Basten. If Van Basten had a rival like Messi back then, he wouldn't have won 2 let alone 4 Ballon d'Ors. (Maradona wasn't eligible for Ballon d'Or.)

So much wrong with that, so so much.

When was the last time he beat a man? Against Roma 2k6 away? Joking aside he really isn't skilful.

Van Basten was better than Ronaldo (who is a glorified RvN nothing more), Ref numbers, thats all they are, the numbers are relevant to THAT time, not NOW.

Better at set pieces? - what 600 shots per goal? dont make me laugh. Did you really say that?, CR is probably the biggest joke in world football at set pieces.

I really do think most of you watched football ,for the first time, in 2k5ish THATS how poor your historic knowledge is. Weve had one of the Ronaldo bum boys call Van Basten "Van Baston" (who not surprisingly talks about STATS STATS STATS).

 

[Sparky10Legend]

Ronnie is in the top 3 players of ALL TIME. Talk to me when any of the players you mentioned scores at the consistency as him, not to mention is amongst one of the highest assisters in the CL.

Really? Really?

Maradona/Pele/Messi(obviously)/Cruyff/Beckenbaur/Ronaldo 9 all so much better than Ronnie its not even funny (i could name another 10 EASY Puskas etc)