Nonsense. Eusebio and Cruyff both came close, and performed excellently in World Cups (something CR7 has still not done in the KO stages). Portugal and Holland are both great footballing nations - they have European Cup winning teams, Ballon D'Or winning players and long, storied histories. It's nothing like Poland or Norway.
Cristiano Ronaldo - Countdown to 1k
- Thread starter Bastian
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Ronaldo likes Trump! MAGA CR7? The CAF won't like this!
In all fairness, he's not really saying he likes or endorses Trump here. He's just saying the POTUS is someone who can change the world. Which is true.
Yet leaving that aside, I was more than anything talking about my angle on that silly GOAT stuff.
Gonna be a few conflicted Ronaldo fans today
It says he can HELP to change the world, which is not true
Yeah, they've got a very good team but there's several other good teams that are favoured above them. If you look at the history, the bookies are usually not far off.
It's not impossible, but it is unlikely. I think a semi-final is probably where they will get to.
I trully think that we tend to give an unnecesary almost taxative extra layer in Euros, Copas, WCs, CLs, to KO mathces (or in the path of trying to win a title). In real life, there has been tons of times many great perfomances against the so called minnows, or in group stageshad even more complex scenarios that whoudl at least mean an equal importance in order to finally win the title.
That has more to do with certain tradition behind some NTs and excessive and (understandable) focus on stats, than actually perfomances or watching a team progressing step by stpe till the day comes.
Nowadays they have sthg very important for any team facing a WC, a solid team with quite a lot of chemistry on every zone.
At the end of the day even if WCs were won typically by Traditional Nations, it all starts from scratch once the first whistle is blown.
In fact bar Cris (with himself), there is not a huge pression behind them and that might help quite a lot. Also WCs are so random in the displays, moments, late injuries, etc that they have more possibilities than the bookies might give them.
You're completely ignoring what I said. I'm talking about 60 years of history re looking at the odds. As I said, this doesn't mean they can't win it, but it is not that likely IMO.
I'm not ignoring it, I was just adding and just pointing that bookies would always put an extra "point" on those who already won it.
The only thing that I slightly differ, it's that with good timing, they have quite a shot to do it
He is a bellend, always was, always will be.
He didn't say change for the better...
Ronaldo on the current state of Man Utd:
"They have good players, but some of them still don't really understand what Manchester United represents. Personally, I'm sad because of the club, which is one of the most important in the world and one that remains close to my heart for obvious reasons.
You need to surround yourself with smart people, with brilliant people, to build the foundations for the future, like Manchester United did so many years ago. Nicky Butt, Gary Neville, Roy Keane, David Beckham—they became great players, but they were young once. Manchester United right now has no structure. I hope that will change in the future, present or future, because the club's potential is incredible. It's one of the most important clubs of the century."
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The man who nearly joined Manchester City claims others don’t understand what Manchester United is about.
False. In 78, Argentina, were 3rd favourites despite never having won it before. In 1998, France were 3rd favourites despite never having won it before. Maybe those teams got a boost from being at home, but in 2010, Spain were the outright favourites, despite never having won it before. They had the kind of exceptionally strong squad that you are claiming Portugal has, but they do not, not quite.
Portugal are currently the sixth favourites in the betting,, and in every single tournament since 1966, no one that far out has won,
Does this mean Portugal definitely can't upset the apple cart? No. But it is unlikely, in my view.
incorrect. other than 1966 every world cup has been won by a foreign manager
Has a foreign coach ever won the world cup fairly? I can't think of a time
Love the way he says Garys instead of Nevilles. Phil Neville has really gotten worse each year after he's retired, the poor lad.
I never said anything about winning the World Cup. After this tournament, Ronaldo could have played nearly 60 Euros and World Cup games. Some GOATs of the past only played 5 or 6 games. Yet so little impact from 52 games so far, relatively.
not in our lifetimes.
*are
feck sakes. keep doing shit like that and they won’t let me in flat roofed pubs anymore.
He's a twat.
Harsh on rimaldo
I wasn't talking in absolutes, I've just pointed that previous winners would be always more prone to be candidates if they are at least in good form, like those who play at home or those teams that even not being WC winners have done great winning an Euro.
Of course it's unlikely, very, all I was saying it's that if timing does its job, this time in their last games they were looking quite good in comparison with their previous pre WCs, Euros if we add that actually aren't favorites, that might work even better for them.
The part I was talking about in the first paragraph, it's just that they will always be a tad underrated if other strong candidates are in good shape and worse traditional countries and recent winners, just that.
What a ridiculous take. He's a top scorer and top assist provider at the Euros. He was a top (joint scorer) at 2 different Euros. For the vast majority of his career, his Portugal squads were bang average, especially in 2010s.
He overachieved with Portugal and it's obviously harder to win the Euros with Portugal than World Cup with Argentina or Brazil. CR7 reached 7 Euros finals with Portugal plus additional 2 UNL trophies. .
And please don't tell me how Ronaldo was "average" in 2016 Euro for a side that parked the bus and was bang average (despite having 6 G/A in 6 games).
Here's a riddle for you. What do Schmeichel, Andy Cole, Tevez and Hargeaves have all in common? Waiting for your answer
.Since you always managed to bring Messi to the table, by directly naming him or the Argie NT, let's say that neither of Messi or Cristiano overachieved, if anything it took a tad too long for their talent at disposal to gain some Senior silveware.
In the majority of cases more due to bad management of their sides in their particular periods than being plain awuful and the always present timing (so important in WCs, Euros and Copas), mostly lacking, plus obviously a good share of them not being clinical enough in certain matches.
The sort of pression a Talisman player has in Brazil or Argentina, it's quite a lot bigger, don't even start with that. It's not that black or white.
The three sides in these last years had enough team to win it at diff periods, yet sides, names are not teams, and only in some particular instances the three NTs had played as a team to actually do it, at times getting really close, others finally winning sthg.
PD: Portugal has in my view quite an enemy in Martinez as the coach, I don't dig him at all, even if it's noticeable the team improved, we'll see if he fvckes it up or not in the WC.
Calling bang average the display of his team in 2026 it's silly, he ows them quite a lot for his silverware, like them to him and you are paiting it like if he carried them.
Finally I guess that when some people talks about him not being Cristiano alike, has more to do with 3 goals and 2 assists in KOs in 21 matches on every major tournament he played.
And for instance while having a good number of MVPs (in general, not just KOs), not as much as his name many thinks would or should provide.
For me? I don't think it's that black and white, that in group stages there are always times that plays as KOs and that winning there not few times opens the path for the final achieve, more than we at times imagine.
So I don't ride the KOs stuff as plain as many times it's talked about, it doesn't work that way.
Yet there is an aspect to take in account, that won't be entirely fair, but still exists if a player lives and die by the sword when his main atrribute it's scoring. If even him emphatizes that, that's what also makes some people turn on him (in a very silly way many times) regarding that particular KOs stat.
Unfair and over the top in my view, but it's there.
Regarding this aspect, I remember talking here in this thread that even some of Cris fans obsession with goals it's not all the times a great angle, it might be against Messi and those tedious comparisons, yet not against someone like Erling. If this last bastard ends scoring as a maniac and even surpass Cris, would be another example of living and dying by the sword.
One Piers Morgan interview with Ronaldo was bad enough never mind two.
Those players aren't taking part in interviews talking about how the current United squad don't know what Manchester United is all about. That's what they have in common.Here's a riddle for you. What do Schmeichel, Andy Cole, Tevez and Hargeaves have all in common? Waiting for your answer
What are you talking about? Schmeichel and Hargreaves are literal pundits these days and they often speak in the name of Man Utd. Schmeichel often uses the term "we" when speaking about Utd as a pundit. And look I'm not mad at them. I actually think Hargreaves is a pretty good and refreshing pundit. According to chat GPT, Andy Cole is a Man Utd ambassador?! So they certainly gave more opinions and interviews about Man Utd than Ronaldo ever did.
The only exception is Tevez, and well nobody likes Tevez nor does he like Man Utd. And going back to Ronaldo's statement, I think that he was pretty spot on. Garnacho, Sancho or Rashford certainly didn't know the meaning or the weight of Man Utd shirt. And maybe he's a bit more hypocritical cause he left Utd twice, but he was never lazy or tanked like Sancho or Rashford. Even in his last season when everyone knew he was going to leave (08/09), he tried to give his best and had a world class season that almost ended up with another PL title and the UCL final.
Tevez actually likes United, for real.
Does he?
Yeap, of course he knows he is hated, but he liked a lot the Club.
Is KingEric really SportingCP in disguise? Eerily similar arguments, similar levels of delusion where Portugal seem to be equivalent to Latvia or Trinidad and Tobago in their minds, pretending the Nations League is a prestigious International honour. Top scorer in the Euros, I’m guessing that’s mostly qualifying rounds too against Andorra, Northern Ireland, Luxembourg, the Faroes and the like. He’s also played more games in the Euros than anyone else so you’d surely expect it from a player of his quality and longevity, but the point still stands, he doesn’t have a great many iconic showings in knockout games, and virtually none when it comes to the World Cup, it’s not only poor, it’s bordering on crazy for someone that really thinks they’re in the top tier of all time greats of the game. I really feel that’s indisputable and you need to retreat into real denial to imply otherwise.
While we’re on the topic of goals at international level, I doubt there’s ever been another player who’s had an entire team play for his goal tally too, the number of times Portugal frittered away chances and let promising attacks break down in the last two tournaments by trying to get goals for him specifically was obscene really. You have one man and his ego acting as an anchor around the collective neck of the nation. However, as long as he keeps cropping up to score in the qualifiers that’s GOAT level status for a lot of fans. Anyway I couldn’t bring myself to watch another Morgan interview, they’re a perfect match for each other though, I’ll say that.
While we’re on the topic of goals at international level, I doubt there’s ever been another player who’s had an entire team play for his goal tally too, the number of times Portugal frittered away chances and let promising attacks break down in the last two tournaments by trying to get goals for him specifically was obscene really. You have one man and his ego acting as an anchor around the collective neck of the nation. However, as long as he keeps cropping up to score in the qualifiers that’s GOAT level status for a lot of fans. Anyway I couldn’t bring myself to watch another Morgan interview, they’re a perfect match for each other though, I’ll say that.
Pundits or not, they're not being interviewed by Piers Morgan complaining about current players at the club.
And no, Garnacho, Sancho and Rashford didn't know the meaning of the shirt. Which is why they've either been sold, loaned out, or will be released on a free at the end of the season.
I don't think your hero really has the place to say what it means to be a United player when he compared himself to a slave in 2008 in order to try and force a move to Madrid, and instead of focusing on celebrating an iconic Champions League and Premier League double, he made the entire summer about him and his 'dream'. Not to mention his laughable behavior in his second spell at the club.
I think a lot of diehard Ronaldo fanboys are just as deluded as the man himself, if not more so. Ronaldo could drop a steaming turd in the middle of the pitch, and many of his fans would say that it was somehow the greatest thing ever.
Not necessarily just Messi, but the fact that the majority of the GOATs come from South America. You know Pele, Maradona being the most obvious ones, and the names like R9, Di Stefano (played for Spain) or Garincha. Now I'm not going to downplay a couple of good portugal players of that era. Pepe deserves a special mention and Nani as well. Both of them were incredible at the Euro 2016 and I don't think that Ronnie carried them single handedly. But let's be honest here. Only Pepe was consistent during that entire era, and as much as I love Nani, he was washed by the time he left Utd. That Euro 2016 squad was pretty poor and it's hard to argue against that. A lot of them played in Portugal, one played for Lorient and two played in Southampton. Nani and Quaresma played in Turkey.
It was a much inferior squad compared to that 2004 Euro squad when you had Figo, Pauleta, Maniche, Rui Costa, Deco and Carvalho. They should have won that Euro instead of 16, but you could say that Portugal of 2016 was like Greece of 2004. I'm gonna admit obviously it was a much better squad than Greece 2004 but it was definitely a story of the underdogs. Ronaldo was only poor in the WC knockouts, I would disagree that he was poor in the Euro knockouts. Yes, Ronaldo should've been better in the WC knockouts but you can't disregard the teams that he played for. I vividly remember the time when Messi was in his prime and what kind of attack he had. He had Tevez, Lavezzi, Aguero, Higuain and Di Maria in attack as his "competition". That's just ridiculous, isn't it? Can you name one very good (striker) that Portugal had since Pauleta days? No instead he had to play with the likes of Eder, Hugo Almeida and Helder Postiga. Quaresma on the wing and don't forget the "legendary" Raul Meireles in the midfield. After 2006 and when Figo, Rui Costa and Pauleta left, he was pretty much on his own most of the time.
Now for Messi, I'll give them credit for winning the last 3 tournaments despite not having the best names. But when was the last time that Portugal had a great coach? Scolari? Yep those days. People tend to underestimate how much Ronaldo was carrying Portugal on his own in those barren years. Now they finally have a squad that is filled with stars, but I believe that they can reach the deep stages of the World Cup. Anyway, the conclusion for me here is that you don't choose your own national team, and when it comes to talking about the GOATs of the game, the majority of them played for Brazil or Argentina, or for the likes of Germany, Spain and Italy. Ronaldo is one of the few exceptions who never played for a NT powerhouse. You need to take that into consideration and that is crucial for me when comparing other GOATs. Does that mean that he had the better NT careers of Pele, Maradona or Messi? Nope. But, he did overachieve with Portugal and pretty much put them on football map. Eusebio and Figo were pioneers, but it was Ronnie who made them better and a much more consistent team.