Cristiano Ronaldo - Much Ado About Al Nassr

romufc

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Ronaldo is literally on record for saying he would never play in Saudi Arabia because he wants to retire with dignity. And now you have certain set of fanboys trying to make it something its not. Its a place just like the mls and Chinese leagues you go to in semi retirement to milk as much money from your image as you can. Of course ronnie being ronnie now bigs it up so he can pretend the goals he scores there are actually meaningfull to his stature.
He was on with Piers Morgan saying other clubs were in for him.. clearly he thought his stock was still somewhat high.

He realised very quickly that there will be no takers and he will have to go for the money.
 

Gehrman

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He was on with Piers Morgan saying other clubs were in for him.. clearly he thought his stock was still somewhat high.

He realised very quickly that there will be no takers and he will have to go for the money.
Well that backfired didnt it?
 

romufc

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Well that backfired didnt it?
I think alot of things he said in that Interview have.

I reckon looking back, he regrets it as it somewhat tainted his legacy, the way he handled the last 3 months of his United career.

Only a self absorbed man would walk away from winning a trophy in England and being a squad player for money. All the nonsense about him loving the club and what not was quickly rubbished.
 

Brwned

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Ronaldo is technically inferior to geniuses like Maradona, Messi, Pele, Zidane, Platini, Cruyff, Ronaldinho, Zico, Modric, Xavi etc. He is not even a top-100 player ever in terms of technical ability. Word genius is mostly reserved for those with magical technique and creativity in football which Ronaldo severely lacks.

He is also nowhere near the top in terms of dribbling skills. The only area where he can arguably be considered a top-5 player ever is goal-scoring.
Madness. Ronaldo was capable of ridiculous things.
 

Gehrman

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Madness. Ronaldo was capable of ridiculous things.
I do agree. Apart from all the other stuff, overhead kicks are technical skills as well and he had that disallowed goal vs spain i think in a friendly where he put the defenders on their asses and chipped the keeper. It was just Nani going for the header whilst being offside that ruined it.
 

Andrade

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I don't think so. Ronaldo's technique was better, for a demo watch the two videos I posted earlier. He could do everything Zidane could do, but better.

And he could also score better than anyone else, which is the hardest thing in football. So, naturally, all the managers asked him to focus on scoring, not to set up inferior players that have higher possibility of missing.
Congratulations. Every single thing you've said in this post is wrong.
 

Chesterlestreet

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He is not even a top-100 player ever in terms of technical ability.
What does that mean?

Ronaldo used his technical ability to devastating effect in his prime. And his technical ability was first rate. In fact, he possessed a combination of technique and physique (athleticism) that is anything but commonplace. He was a monster of a player - I mean, come on, let's not re-write history just because he's a cnut and/or delusional in terms of his current level.

If you're including useless show ponies, "dribblers" of a certain kind - and so forth - then yes, maybe he isn't in the top 100. But who cares about that? The only "technical ability" in football that matters is one that can be used, consistently, to produce something tangible at a high level. There have been numerous "technical" players over the years that never amounted to anything because they just weren't that good - they produced feck all.

I detest Ronaldo.

But he's a (historically) great player. One of the best ever.
 

FrankFoot

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I don't think so. Ronaldo's technique was better, for a demo watch the two videos I posted earlier. He could do everything Zidane could do, but better.

And he could also score better than anyone else, which is the hardest thing in football. So, naturally, all the managers asked him to focus on scoring, not to set up inferior players that have higher possibility of missing.
Zidane,R9, and Ronaldinho are more talented than Ronaldo.
But it doesn't matter, Ronaldo is superior than them due to longevity and consistency, plus a much better and successful career.


Nothing to be ashamed of.
 

heraklion

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What does that mean?

Ronaldo used his technical ability to devastating effect in his prime. And his technical ability was first rate. In fact, he possessed a combination of technique and physique (athleticism) that is anything but commonplace. He was a monster of a player - I mean, come on, let's not re-write history just because he's a cnut and/or delusional in terms of his current level.

If you're including useless show ponies, "dribblers" of a certain kind - and so forth - then yes, maybe he isn't in the top 100. But who cares about that? The only "technical ability" in football that matters is one that can be used, consistently, to produce something tangible at a high level. There have been numerous "technical" players over the years that never amounted to anything because they just weren't that good - they produced feck all.

I detest Ronaldo.

But he's a (historically) great player. One of the best ever.
For me, Ronaldo is a top-10 player meaning he's one of the best ever. As many others said above, he lacks the genius technique, creativity others have.

Ronaldo is not capable of top-class playmaking, dictating the game like those examples below. His passing, touch, ball control, through-ball skills and vision is inferior. He is also nowhere near the top in terms of dribbling skills. The type of playmaking that below can do, Ronaldo can only dream of, that's why his longevity was all about his athleticism. Once that's gone, he's gone too. The guy would not even be considered the most technically gifted Portuguese player ever in Portugal let alone among the best in the rest of the world. I want to hear your definition of technique because that would be the last word that would come to my mind when watching him play and defining his game.

Zico, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Pele, Neymar
Maradona, Messi, Riquelme
Zidane, Platini
Modric
Cruyff, Gullit, Bergkamp
Xavi, Iniesta
Hagi
Francescoli
Brian Laudrup, Michael Laudrup
Matthaus, Schuster
De Bruyne
Scholes
Pirlo, Baggio, Totti, Zola
Best
Rui Costa
 
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Gehrman

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For me, Ronaldo is a top-10 player meaning he's one of the best ever. As many others said above, he lacks the genius technique, creativity others have.

Ronaldo is not capable of top-class playmaking, dictating the game like those examples below. His passing, touch, ball control, through-ball skills and vision is inferior. He is also nowhere near the top in terms of dribbling skills. The type of playmaking that below can do, Ronaldo can only dream of, that's why his longevity was all about his athleticism. Once that's gone, he's gone too. The guy would not even be considered the most technically gifted Portuguese player ever in Portugal let alone among the best in the rest of the world. I want to hear your definition of technique because that would be the last word that would come to my mind when watching him play and defining his game.

Zico, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Pele, Neymar
Maradona, Messi, Riquelme
Zidane, Platini
Modric
Cruyff, Gullit, Bergkamp
Xavi, Iniesta
Hagi
Francescoli
Brian Laudrup, Michael Laudrup
Matthaus, Schuster
De Bruyne
Scholes
Pirlo, Baggio, Totti, Zola
Best
Rui Costa
You dont think Cristiano was a more skilfull player than Brian Laudrup? Who is the most technically gifted Portugese player ever? Figo?
 

Chesterlestreet

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For me, Ronaldo is a top-10 player meaning he's one of the best ever. As many others said above, he lacks the genius technique, creativity others have.
Yes, that's fine.

But when you phrase it as you did (not top 100 in terms of "technical ability") - it comes out all wrong.

Creativity has nothing to do with "technical ability", for one thing.

Dribbling ability has nothing to do with "technical ability" (as such) either.

"Technical ability" is the ability to control the ball (as far as I'm concerned).

A useless show pony may have greater "technical ability" than a genuinely great football player.

(The question is how you use your ability to control the ball - and under what circumstances.)

If your point is that C. Ronaldo is not among the 100 greatest players ever in terms of his ability to control the football using his body (his feet, mainly), you're very likely right. But it's a pointless enough...point. Because being "technical" in that sense doesn't mean anything at the highest level. A useless player can have the ball glued to his foot - it means feck all in itself beyond a certain level, as anyone who has ever played football knows.

If your actual point is that C. Ronaldo was less smooth on the ball (his ability to control the football using his body, mainly his feet), and less "creative" (initiating plays that lead to goal scoring opportunities) than any number of other great players, then yes - of course, you clearly have a case.
 
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Andrade

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Yes, that's fine.

But when you phrase it as you did (not top 100 in terms of "technical ability") - it comes out all wrong.

Creativity has nothing to do with "technical ability", for one thing.

Dribbling ability has nothing to do with "technical ability" (as such) either.

"Technical ability" is the ability to control the ball (as far as I'm concerned).

A useless show pony may have greater "technical ability" than a genuinely great football player.

(The question is how you use your ability to control the ball - and under what circumstances.)

If your point is that C. Ronaldo is not among the 100 greatest players ever in terms of his ability to control the football using his body (his feet, mainly), you're very likely right. But it's a pointless enough...point. Because being "technical" in that sense doesn't mean anything at the highest level. A useless player can have the ball glued to his foot - it means feck all in itself beyond a certain level, as anyone who has ever played football knows.

If your actual point is that C. Ronaldo was less smooth on the ball (his ability to control the football using his body, mainly his feet), and less "creative" (initiating plays that lead to goal scoring opportunities) than any number of other great players, then yes - of course, you clearly have a case.
I don't agree with anything you've said here. Of course creativity and technical ability are linked. And technical ability surely relates to anything to do with technique, namely, controlling and mastering the ball but also passing, dribbling, shooting etc.
 

frostbite

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Ronaldo arrived at United as a replacement for Beckham. He had many talents, but what was really extraordinary was his focus in becoming the best and his ability to work hard to achieve it. He could become a better version of Beckham if he had focused on that.

It was Sir Alex that made him focus his training on scoring (which upset Nistelroy). Of course, sir Alex was right again, scoring is far more important than passing or dribbling or anything else in football. And Ronaldo became the best in the world and scored more goals than Pele, which was the dream for millions of kids for decades. Now the dream of millions of kids is to score more than Ronaldo!
 

FriedClams

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Have I genuinely witnessed someone claim Ronaldo is better technically at football than Zidane?
 

frostbite

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Every skilfull player has these sort of showboating compilations on youtube. If you've never seen Quaresma play and saw his youtube compilation videos you'd think he was one of the best players in the world.
Of course. And actually, I have seen even better tricks with a ball at Cirque du Soleil.

However, only one player has scored the most goals in the world. That used to be Pele. Now it is Ronaldo. That's a huge difference.
 

Hammondo

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I don't understand why people are claiming Ronaldo was a top player technically when it wasn't a big part of his game at all.
 

frostbite

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Those of you who don't know that Sir Alex is the main reason that Ronaldo started as a Cirque du Soleil player and ended as a scoring machine, can start with this:

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/manutd-cristiano-ronaldo-ferguson-evra-28234216

Patrice Evra has recalled how Sir Alex Ferguson turned Cristiano Ronaldo from a "YouTube player" into a Premier League superstar.

"Ferguson went further and told him that he's not a winger, that he's a striker and with his ability he had to score two or three goals a game and he didn't care about the tricks and skill, he said, 'Forget that, you need to score goals'. That season Ronaldo scored 42 goals.

"He was a goal machine, he didn't care about impressing people with skill and tricks, he was just focused on scoring goals. A lot of it is down to Sir Alex Ferguson, he had a massive impact.
 

frostbite

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I don't understand why people are claiming Ronaldo was a top player technically when it wasn't a big part of his game at all.
It's probably because you have not watched Ronaldo at 17. He was a technical player, full of tricks, better than Zidane or Ronaldinho. And he was training harder than everyone else. The question was: what should be the focus of his training?

It was Sir Alex that made him focus on scoring and not on technical skills. Because scoring is much more important than any other skill. Thanks to Sir Alex, Ronaldo has now scored more goals than Pele. And he made more money than anyone else in football. That's why Ronaldo is always so thankful for all the advice Sir Alex gave him.
 

Hammondo

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It's probably because you have not watched Ronaldo at 17. He was a technical player, full of tricks, better than Zidane or Ronaldinho. And he was training harder than everyone else. The question was: what should be the focus of his training?

It was Sir Alex that made him focus on scoring and not on technical skills. Because scoring is much more important than any other skill. Thanks to Sir Alex, Ronaldo has now scored more goals than Pele. And he made more money than anyone else in football. That's why Ronaldo is always so thankful for all the advice Sir Alex gave him.
I watched him at that age and he wasn't close to those players.
 

frostbite

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They are either too young to have seen Zidane play or are absolutely clueless when it comes to football.
Do you include Zidane himself in those?

https://www.sportskeeda.com/football/news-he-s-greatest-time-when-zidane-chose-cristiano-ronaldo-lionel-messi#:~:text=Zidane was quoted as saying,But Ronaldo is phenomenal.

Zidane was quoted as saying by GOAL:

"Cristiano is the best. Messi is his rival and it's the rivalry everyone wants to see. But Ronaldo is phenomenal. There are no words to describe him. He is much better than me even though I had a great career. He's the greatest of all time."
 

Sandikan

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Have I genuinely witnessed someone claim Ronaldo is better technically at football than Zidane?
The way bitter people post on here I'm amazed people aren't claiming Weigy is better than prime Ronaldo.
 

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GifLord

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It's probably because you have not watched Ronaldo at 17. He was a technical player, full of tricks, better than Zidane or Ronaldinho. And he was training harder than everyone else. The question was: what should be the focus of his training?

It was Sir Alex that made him focus on scoring and not on technical skills. Because scoring is much more important than any other skill. Thanks to Sir Alex, Ronaldo has now scored more goals than Pele. And he made more money than anyone else in football. That's why Ronaldo is always so thankful for all the advice Sir Alex gave him.
:lol: :lol: :lol:
 

FrankFoot

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It's probably because you have not watched Ronaldo at 17. He was a technical player, full of tricks, better than Zidane or Ronaldinho. And he was training harder than everyone else. The question was: what should be the focus of his training?

It was Sir Alex that made him focus on scoring and not on technical skills. Because scoring is much more important than any other skill. Thanks to Sir Alex, Ronaldo has now scored more goals than Pele. And he made more money than anyone else in football. That's why Ronaldo is always so thankful for all the advice Sir Alex gave him.
Ronaldo is better than Ronaldinho and Zidane, because of longevity, consistency, and more efficiency on the pitch week in and week out, that's pretty much obvious...but he isn't more naturally talented than them.

Just to mention, for my team i would choose Ronaldo over Zidane and Ronaldinho, cause at the end of the day Football it's about efficiency, and i would want my team to stay on top challenging for trophies for a longer time than just 3 seasons, but CR7 isn't more talented than Zidane,Ronaldinho,R9, Neymar,betc
 

Gehrman

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Yeah Ronnie at 17 was streets ahead of Zidane and Ronaldinho.... he ended up being a better and greater player than either though but claming being technically better than them at 17 is just wrong.
 

GifLord

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Yeah Ronnie at 17 was streets ahead of Zidane and Ronaldinho.... he ended up being a better and greater player than either though but claming being technically better than them at 17 is just wrong.
He was never in the same realm when it came to dribbling. Like c'mon
 

Threesus

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I saw this series of tweets recently. I had forgotten how rapid a young Ronaldo was.

Our current squad is nowhere near this team, man. If not for Milan and injuries, we could have won the CL this season as well.
 

MrEleson

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I don't understand why people are claiming Ronaldo was a top player technically when it wasn't a big part of his game at all.
His game was all about dribbling and beating his man when he broke through. His first world class season was due to his imperious wing play and devastating impact from a wide position not goals. So how can you confidently claim technique wasn’t a big part of his game unless you weren’t old enough to watch him back then.
 

GifLord

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His game was all about dribbling and beating his man when he broke through. His first world class season was due to his imperious wing play and devastating impact from a wide position not goals. So how can you confidently claim technique wasn’t a big part of his game unless you weren’t old enough to watch him back then.
And speed played a big part in it. You could see in Serie A when he lost his speed he couldn't even go past former shitty serie b defenders for crying out loud.
 

Hammondo

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His game was all about dribbling and beating his man when he broke through. His first world class season was due to his imperious wing play and devastating impact from a wide position not goals. So how can you confidently claim technique wasn’t a big part of his game unless you weren’t old enough to watch him back then.
Because he was fast.
 

In Rainbows

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Ronaldo certainly had very good technique, but it wasn't at the level of Zidane. His shooting technique was way better, and probably one of the best in history. In other areas of skill, I mean, come on man. Zidane has the better technique easily. It does take good technique to dribble well, but speed is also a big factor. Zidane did not have the physical ability of Ronaldo, hence why Ronaldo was able to run at defenders like that.
 

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Do you include Zidane himself in those?

https://www.sportskeeda.com/football/news-he-s-greatest-time-when-zidane-chose-cristiano-ronaldo-lionel-messi#:~:text=Zidane was quoted as saying,But Ronaldo is phenomenal.

Zidane was quoted as saying by GOAL:

"Cristiano is the best. Messi is his rival and it's the rivalry everyone wants to see. But Ronaldo is phenomenal. There are no words to describe him. He is much better than me even though I had a great career. He's the greatest of all time."
Nice try, are we talking about just technique or as a player in general?
 

RedRonaldo

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And speed played a big part in it. You could see in Serie A when he lost his speed he couldn't even go past former shitty serie b defenders for crying out loud.
He has avg 1.8 dribbler per game in Serie A, highest in his team, and higher than his Real late years actually.

Sure he is no Messi in dribbling, far from it, but to give better perspective, young and very fast Mbappe only has avg 2 dribble per game this season in Ligue 1. Here's the dribbling compliation of him when he was at his mid 30s at Juventus:


And to be fair, I remember when Ronaldinho start his decline in late 20s, he could no longer dribble past opponents for fun like he used to too, even he was probably the best dribbler in the game of our time (post-Maradona and pre-Messi era). Sure speed is important for anyone, including Ronaldinho.

Ronaldo at 34: 1.8 dribble per game in Serie A
Ronaldo at 35: 1.6 dribble per game in Serie A
Ronaldo at 36: 1.7 dribble per game in Serie A

Ronaldinho at 30: 2 dribble per game in Serie A
Ronaldinho at 31: 0.7 dribble per game in Serie A
 
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