I didn't watch much of Messi in 2006-07 but I don't recall him being spoken about on the same level as Ronaldo and Kaka that season. Either way - Ronaldo was definitely in the top 3 dribblers in the world from 2006-2009.
To claim that Ronaldo's dribbling ability has become overrated is bizarre (unless we're only referring to the Ronaldo we saw in his 30s).
Messi in his first seasons had paperwork and permits issues and later he was constantly injured, from fouls like the Emerson one, to hamstrings and such, he missed many matches during quite a number of seasons in his youth.
Nevertheless regarding dribbling, his Getafe goal was from 2007 (side note: puskas awards started in 2008/9, thought is a prize that bizarrelly always dribbled Messi).
The thing with CR dribbling level it's that with this constant silly comparison with Messi due to that hideous Barca vs Madrid press, it was installed that he was sthg of a unique and extraordinary one, sthg like in a Messi level in his youth and for many of us, it never was at such very top top elite level, no matter how harder it's pushed the Man Utd years.
Does this mean that he didn't made really great to amazing ones his whole carreer? nope (even post Man Utd years), but he never was among the very very best ones ever. The other extreme of making him a none dribbler, of not considering his excellent dribbles to enter the area or shooting from outside, his bursts from the midfield leaving fellas in the dust when finding more space and of course some trully amazing and proper dribbling in tight spaces, it's just stupid. But there was and seems still is some sort of need of installing that he was sthg like Kaka, Maradona, etc in his early years and suddenly he just stopped doing it and it's not, he still did it quite a lot, he did change his style for a more goal oriented one, but also La Liga (continental leagues) tend to be more astute in relation to deal with dribblers, many teams are more pragmatic, more defensive oriented and he had to adapt to that instead of the almost constant back and forth EPL type of games.
So at the end Overrated it's silly when he did it in a great way multiple times in his carreer, but in comparison to Pele, Garrincha, Sivori, Rivelino, Best, Cryuff, Maradona, R9, Messi, Neymar did it, he fells short...even fellas like Di Stefano was a massive dribbler...the list can go on with fellas Iniesta, Laudrup, Hazard, Robben, Di Maria, Littbarski, Aimar, Ortega and quite a number of fellas specialists in the matter or more or less having that atribute in the bag among their traits at a high level like Cris does.
He may look a bit stiff, but I would call it much-needed energy-saving. If CR7 tried to imitate pre-weight gain R-9 or Robben's dribbling style I suspect he would never last 90 minutes when you look at his position on the pitch, expectations, and his size. When you look at players who were tall, and had great ball control but got significantly heavier in their career, it changed their movement/dribbling style massively even though they had as good ball control as before.
Look at the video of Ibra's goals in the Champions League. He never scored a goal or even moved similar to his goal vs Lyon or Celta Vigo after leaving ajax, as he packed on 10 kg of muscles shortly after. Your body can handle those light dancing steps combined with direction change up until a certain point when you're forced to move more narrowly
Not really man, I get what you are saying, but the dude is a proper machine and he ran like hell his whole carreer and has the physique to deal with it.
It's more that he hasn't that ability of space awarness, really extreme control of the ball in a GOAT or dribbling specialist level.
You can see proper tall dudes being quite more effective like him in the past like Gullit or Kempes going time and again carrying the ball. Of course with any player age mattters, but he isn't also that great doing it a slow pace like, he was great at dribbling, yet he was not that of an extreme elite or specialist.
I trully think it's that fecking stupid Madrid vs Barca agenda of propelling their boys in a ver silly yet profitable way.
My english sucks, but maybe I've explained myself better in the other opinion above this one