I had Cristiano as maybe making top 10 a few years ago, but then that 2017 CL season really elevated him for me.
Scoring 5 against Bayern Munich (even if one was offside/questionable if I remember), 3 against Atletico and then 2 in the final against Juventus. That was one of the best closing stretches to a CL ever, maybe the very best. That and the fact he keeps scoring so much for so long, even at 36, you have to respect that.
So I would have to put him 4th in my all-time list. I just feel like Pele, Maradona and Messi are an other level in terms of ability on the pitch. Being ahead of Cruyff, Di Stefano and Beckenbauer though is some achievement. Also Eusebio would have probably thought he'd be Portugal's greatest player forever but Ronaldo has also passed him out.
If you gave Ronaldo the durability of Cristiano Ronaldo, and the modern CL where the top 4 qualify instead of only champions or 1st and 2nd for most of Ronaldo's peak, who knows what might have happened?
Cristiano has now played 442 more games than Ronaldo, that's a massive amount. Ronaldo's goal average is better than Cristiano internationally and much more impactful goals. If Ronaldo plays 1050 games like Cristiano, scoring at the same clip as he did in his career, he would have scored 720 career goals. It's a shame we never saw that.
Thats a very big "if".
Aside from injuries, you really can't assume L.Ronaldo could score the huge amount of goal CR7 was scoring at age 30-36.
For your information, ever since L.Ronaldo in his 30s, he only managed 48 goals in 102 games (35 of them scored in Brazil league)..
In comparison, Ronaldo had over 300 goals in around 300 something games.
So, even if you triple amount of games L.Ronaldo would play, he still wouldn't score half as many as CR7, even he was only playing mostly in Brazil league, which was considered as lower level.
But yes, CR7 is at very least among top 4 GOAT, even from the most neutral observers. For some one who hate him or his football, would tend to rate him lower, fo someone who worship him or like his football, would tend to rate him higher.
For me he is definitely among top 3, maybe at 2nd or 3rd.
I could explain why.
For all players I've ever witnessed in my lifetime so far, he is definitely among top 2 (Messi and Ronaldo).
If we include all the past greats, and compare them by their achievements, stats, records, individual honours etc, he would be definitely among top 2 or 3 too (Pele, Messi and Ronaldo).
Now the biggest question left is, why is he better than Maradona?
Well the simple answer is, Maradona at 86 or around that period, (mid late 80s) was probably the greatest ever. But I've also witness his huge downfall from 90's onwards. Let's just say, it was a very disappointing 6 years of shite football from him (aside from all the bans on him for taking drugs of course). I couldn't forget those years, I was expecting to witness GOAT in action, but I keep getting disappointed over and over again for many games which last for very long period too, until he retired. And that's why both Messi and Ronaldo have easily exceed him, as their level never really drops, even they are already 33-36, and they still easily the best player in their respective league with highest output, and still playing at world class level. Maradona was completely done long before he reach their old age.