Surely he can't be far behind Di Natale's record for goals scored after the age of 35
Cristiano Ronaldo - 961/1000
- Thread starter Bastian
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Iirc he waited before going to SA because he (probably) assumed that there'd be interest in him in Europe but the only team that was rich enough to afford him and dumb enough to sign him was us.
He left us in November, he signed his new contract in December. Given the huge amount of money involved, it is a little hard to believe that there was zero contact before that, he probably already had an idea of how much money he was going to get. These multimillionaires have a whole team of lawyers and PR people working for them, they make contacts every day on their behalf.
Anyway, you and I have no idea how much ahead Ronaldo had planned when he gave the interview. However, you and I can clearly see that he did not like ETH, he wanted out, and he knew that Man Utd sold £187m of Cristiano Ronaldo shirts in 10 days. If you are worth that much, there is no reason to stay at a place where you feel they disrespect you, winning the league cup is not worth it. After all, he probably makes more money on Instagram than most footballers get from their contracts.
Just out of curiosity, I googled how much Ronaldo makes from Instagram, and it is shocking! Three million per post!
"The Portugal forward brings in a massive $3.23 million per Instagram post, according to Hopper HQ, as he nears 600 million followers on the social media platform."
https://www.reuters.com/sports/socc...stagram-influencers-annual-ranking-2023-08-10
Ronaldo streets ahead of Instagram influencers in annual ranking
"The Portugal forward brings in a massive $3.23 million per Instagram post, according to Hopper HQ, as he nears 600 million followers on the social media platform."
https://www.reuters.com/sports/socc...stagram-influencers-annual-ranking-2023-08-10
Ronaldo streets ahead of Instagram influencers in annual ranking
I'm sorry mate but your take is contradicting everything that was reported after the interview. That he fell out with Mendes because he didn't agree with this step, that he expected a top club would go for him, that he wanted to play CL to extend his goal record, etc. I think there even were reports that he didn't prefer Saudi Arabia.
The move was completely atypical for him as well. I'm sure he could have made more money elsewhere when he chose to rejoin United.
He was offered the chance to go to SA in the summer window and declined it as he wanted CL football and expected another club to come in for him. This is after him saying a few weeks before hand he wasnt leaving United, then he went AWOL in hope for a new top team. Contact and amounts from SA were offered back in the summer so he knew how much he was getting and what was expected months before but didnt want to drop down levels to play there and wanted a top European team. No one wanted him as his form and attitude was terrible, left Juve by going AWOL as well the season before.
We made more than our monies worth from Ronaldo when he came and his stay wasnt a total blow out but the decison to move him on at the time was the correct one, his form was horrible, even his International manager dropped him from World Cup games as he was holding the team back. There was external reasons why his form was bad and his head didnt seem to be in the right place. In SA at the begining he wasnt exactly setting it on fire, this season though he looks fantastic and could still make a move into Europe again, we could do with someone like him in the team now his ego has subsided a bit and hes back in form.
Yes, he was offered a lot of money in the summer, he explored options, he stayed with us, at some point he got fed up with ETH and he said "feck this", he became free, he got the money, it turned out to be great for him, he gets 200 million per year, he became a billionaire. And we still do not have a proper striker.
That's what I said.
Where do you disagree? That it was a great move for him? That we have had Wout and Hojlund who do not have a single PL goal between them in almost a full year? Perhaps you believe that Ronaldo with us would also score zero PL goals in a year? Honestly, I don't see where you disagree! Ronaldo has scored 43 goals total in 2023, our two main strikers have scored zero goals for us in the PL in 2023. Do you really believe that Wout and Hojlund have been great strikers for us in 2023?
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People are replying to me and they want to say something contrary to what I said, but what I said is just two simple facts!
1. The move was great for Ronaldo.
2. It was not so great for us because we still do not have a striker.
These are just facts!
I don't like Antony, I don't care about Antony, but if we release Antony and we get an even worse player in his place, I wouldn't consider this a success, I'd consider it another mistake. It is very easy to say "this player is not performing to expectations, let's get rid of him". But this makes sense only if you can get someone better. If you can only get someone worse, then it is a mistake. Is this a complicated concept?
1. The move was great for Ronaldo.
2. It was not so great for us because we still do not have a striker.
These are just facts!
I don't like Antony, I don't care about Antony, but if we release Antony and we get an even worse player in his place, I wouldn't consider this a success, I'd consider it another mistake. It is very easy to say "this player is not performing to expectations, let's get rid of him". But this makes sense only if you can get someone better. If you can only get someone worse, then it is a mistake. Is this a complicated concept?
If you read what I posted I said we could do with having Ronaldo now, the disgareement is that last season we didnt need him becuase of the form he was in. His International manager dropped him as well becasue his form dropped massively, no club in Europe wanted him and the only option that was available to him was SA. He wanted to leave in the Summer because we didnt have Champions League football and wanted to have one last chance at winning it, he wanted to move to another champions league club in the summer and no one wanted him, I repeating myself so you can read it twice, he explored options that werent availble to him, his only 2 options were United and SA. ETH even made him captain 2 weeks before he said he wanted to leave the club, you need to know more about Ronaldo, ETH and that season to validate your points that he was disrepected. This is also 2 weeks after he walked out for refusing to come on for the last few minutes against Spurs.
I also pointed out that the contact was made in the summer for SA as you werent aware that it had been offered then. He wasnt disrespected, in one of his last home games he grabbed the badge and mouthed he was staying, someone can correct me if my memory is wrong, then a few weeks later he goes AWOL trying to force a move, this is him disrespecting the fans, club and manager.
You also didnt know he left for free and had his contract cancelled by mutual disagreement, with no monetary benefit. You seem to be arguing points you dont even have any knowledge on and dont spend any time reading a response, this is why people are replying to you. Also the 2 points youve made in the last post are not the only points you started making, youve streamlined what youve been posting as more people keep correcting you.
He probably would still have been in Europe if he had stayed at Juventus or engineered a move to another club that wasn’t us.
That’s not really any news isn’t it. When you have over 600m followers, you are just going to earn alot of money doing nothing.
I think him staying at Juventus was untenable. The whole narrative of buying him to win the CL was a failure and he was embarrassing in their defeat to Porto. Of course he could have stayed in Europe if he was okay with joining midtable clubs. But naturally he would only want to join the biggest clubs in europe or Sporting perhaps.
Dominating Saudi league as he might, he left for a reason, he just couldn't cut it in EPL anymore.
His best performing images on Instagram are images of his family, and when he shows off his abs which is two different audiences to those interested in his football related posts.
That's where most footballers get it wrong with an overload of football related posts, and not enough sprinkling that with relatable content like family.
Additionally, the content of his significant other has two of the most profitable niches (luxury and fashion) and when you combine those niches with wholesome family content it's a recipe for significant engagement which boosts Ronaldo's standing amongst women.
Furthermore, he has a competitive advantage given he has rivalry. Meaning, any time Messi scores, or has some kind of accomplishment, Messi fans in mass will go to Ronaldo's feed and brag in the comments which drives the engagement, and increases his negotiating power with sponsors. Messi and Neymar have the same competitive advantage.
In my humble opinion, the only trick his social media team are missing is not making posts related to India, whether that's some kind of sponsorship deal with an Indian brand, or going on holiday to India and sharing the family holiday pictures on his profile. I say that, because around 229.55 million Instagram users are in India compared to 143.35 million users in the United States.
I thought he was finished but it seems that he is still going even if it is difficult to determine the average level of the SA league.
I wonder if a 4-4-2 with him and Rashford up top would have been decent.
I wonder if a 4-4-2 with him and Rashford up top would have been decent.
And there's a reason no one else in Europe wanted him either. It's the same with Messi in MLS. Nice goals, but just because he does well in MLS doesn't mean he would thoroughly dominate Europe week in and week out.
I think he could still play in a top league, purely as a finisher. He tends to overdo himself so he needs to manage himself and realize he can't be playing every single game. Then his biggest handicap at this stage in his career would be his wages and his age as there's not a lot of teams who can afford him unless he decided to reduce his salary by a lot.
Yes, it is depressing. And outrageous. It shouldn't be like that, but...
Agree
Actually, this is not true. Today, Ronaldo wouldn't be the best striker in EPL, but he could be an average striker, perhaps for a mid table team (like us, haha).
But why would Ronaldo choose to go to Fulham, for example, and make 5 million per year, while he can go to SA and make 200 million per year? Nobody in his right might would do that.
The same for Messi. Messi would be a good player in EPL, but definitely not the best. It is a better choice for him to go to US and make money, while he remains the best player in that league.
The other choice for both Messi and Ronaldo would be to retire while still at the top. That's also a respectable choice. But making mega-bucks works for them, too. And both of them seem to be enjoying what they are doing. I guess if they stop enjoying it, they will just retire.
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Another nice goal for Portugal. He has been scoring quite a no. of quality goals this season.
Forget Fulham. He could make 5 posting twice while on his bed doing nothing
It’s not difficult at all. The answer you’re looking for is “shit”.
Ranked 36th strongest league in the world by opta in August. Which is really shit. No problem with that though. Im hardly elated about oil states having more influence on football but at least they are a attracting a higher muslim audience in that part of the world.
I imagine it's gone up a notch this past year with some of the recent summer acquisitions. It must be better than the likes of the J-League and Allsvenkan for a start
He is already 38 years old. His performance is more than respectable for his age. His professionalism and determination are just top level for an athlete.
Without a doubt. He is still very fast for his age.
Yeah, he's still quick. Is he Man United 2004-2009 quick? Absolutely not, he was insanely fast back then, almost no one could catch him, I'd say he's about within the average of quick and fast players now. Sometimes he gets caught, sometimes he can still run away from all kinds of defenders. His top speed is lagging, but his acceleration is well above the average still, in my view.
Some things have gone with the age, but others are just as good, which at his age is quite remarkable. His technique overall has dropped if you consider technique as a whole, but his shooting technique at 38 is just impeccable, as good as it was at any point of his career. The amount of power he generates on his shots today, from the angles he shoots, the body positions from which he is shooting sometimes, like yesterday, are just absolutely fantastic still, in my humble opinion. His splitstep work (which usually deteriorates fast with age, i.e. with tennis players) is still nothing short of insanity at this age. His timings, off the ball vision of the play, ability to ditch defenders and get himself into free shooting positions, are just as good as ever.
Sure he's definitely playing in an easier league, some goals are clearly in line with a worse general level of defending in the Saudi leageu, but one watches half of the goals he's scored this season, and the absolute perfection with which he struck the ball in some of those goals, and I think it's fair to say he'd have scored those same goals in any league out there.
He's a good football player at this age, still one of the best in terms of scoring goals, reduced in quality in other apects of play. I don't think it's a hot take from me. I think it's normal he's still quality. Messi has also been showing that while not being the same, the peak was so high that even at 36 he's overall a quite good football player and still one of the best in the world in terms of passing, vision, anticipation, etc.
At his age it is normal for player to lose his explosiveness and agility. He changed his playing style to accommodate it as well. He is more a penalty box striker mostly focus on anticipation and positioning these days.
In other news the sky is blue.
I’m at the point of wanting us to get him on loan for 6 months. Just to have someone actually scoring all those chances we create
But then I remember those last few games with United where his body just seemed to give up on him.
Feck it, get him in for 6 months Papa Perez. Vini is out yet again and at this point I’m sure the other forwards will fall down the stairs straight into a volcano or something.
Need him to stand in the box and finish anything that comes his way. Joselu scores like 1 out of every 10 chances he gets. Ronaldo couldn’t possibly do worse.
Let's see how much he tries to score against mighty Island now that Lukaku scored 4 past Azerbajain.
I find it really strange belittling his international goals. Every European striker for a bigger nation has been able to play against the same teams, and no one is even close to him and likely never will be.
Kane, Haaland, Lukaku have better per game ratios with the national team than Ronaldo (0.6 per game).
Lukaku scored more goals for Belgium than Pele, R9, Romario for Brazil, Batistuta for Argentina, the magic of Euro qualifiers.
Gerd Muller scored 68 goals in 62 games when there were no Andorra, Faroe, Gibraltar, Azerbaijan, San Marino, Liechtenstein, former USSR teams and many other minnows.
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And none of them will ever outscore him internationally