Chelsea have been linked with signing the former Manchester United attacker, who simply cannot stop scoring for Real Madrid. Daniel Vincent asks what makes Ronaldo so special?
With Ronaldo having just surpassed 100 La Liga goals in record time, people will again debate the two questions: “Who is the best player in the world today?” and “Who is the best player of all time?”
Most people will agree; Lionel Messi is numero uno in the world today, and even possibly of all time. Guardiola and Bianchi think so, Wenger thinks so and even Maradona has hinted at it. So, Cristiano Ronaldo may not be ‘the best’, but he must be held upon a pedestal in his own light, as the most complete football player ever to have walked the earth.
This article isn’t going to be another trite comparison of Ronaldo and Messi, it is going to focus purely on Ronaldo’s mercurial ability and record breaking feats. Brace yourself for a footballing master class.
As has been widely publicised, Ronaldo scored the fastest 100 goals in La Liga history. That’s 101 goals in 92 games – 1.1 goals per game.
To put this in perspective, it took Raúl 216 games, Eto’o 207 games and the great Brazilian Ronaldo 134 games to accomplish the same.
In the 2010/11 season he scored the most goals in any one full La Liga season netting 40 times in 34 appearances. If you then include this season’s league goals and games, that’s 75 in 63 games – or a goal every 71 minutes – also a Spanish league record.
In the same 2010/11 season, Ronaldo scored 53 goals in all 54 competitive games that he appeared in. So, during his entire Real Madrid career Ronaldo has scored an incredible 131 goals in 131 games (at the time of writing). An exceptional statistic, by anyone’s standard.
As if this goal scoring glory was not enough on its own, Ronaldo holds one more notable statistical record and could shortly be creating another.
He is the only player to win the European Golden boot in 2 different countries (England and Spain).
Finally, if he scores against both Mallorca and Barcelona before this season is over, he will have scored against every team in La Liga, the first player to do so.
How does he score goals with such apparent ease? Is it simply natural talent? It’s doubtful. He was obviously blessed with the raw qualities, but I think what gives him the edge over his rivals is being the hardest working man in football, a pin-up-boy for the adage ‘practice makes well practised.’
Anyone that has watched Ronaldo play will testify to his tireless weaves and sprints, chasing both well placed passes and wildly over hit slices. Ronaldo doesn’t just end up in the right place at the right time, he runs to be there…over and over again.
Let’s look at Ronaldo’s shot count in the 10/11 season. He played 2901 minutes having 250 attempts on goal. That’s a strike every 12 minutes. For comparison, Di Natale (the leading scorer in Serie A) played 2939 minutes having 152 shots, with Chelsea’s Drogba also taking 152 shots whilst playing 2796 minutes. In this same period, Ronaldo also scored and assisted more times than both players.
This assiduous practice has rewarded him with an iconic free kick that has travels up to 80mph, and a sprint which carries him 100 metres in around 11 seconds.
But what makes him the most complete footballer of all time? So he runs a lot, and shoots a lot and scores a lot, but so do a number of players. The difference is his excellence across a wide variety of attributes.
He plays well with both feet and his head, whilst being lightning fast. He also takes free-kicks, curled and blasted, as well as penalties, scoring frequently. His touch and dribbling ability are also of the highest draw.
For one player to possess this wide selection of qualities is extremely rare. Beckham for instance, had a great right foot, but a poor left. He also took a great free kick, but he lacked pace.
Even Zidane, widely regarded as the complete footballer, lacked pace – and Ronaldo is arguably more effective than the great Zidane.
Ask yourself, what would a player with the pace of Henry, trickery of Ronaldinho, vision of Kaká, Bergkamp’s touch and who’s more prolific than Romário look like? What if he also had Hierro’s strike power, the dribbling of Giggs, Klose’s ariel prowess and Mcmanaman’s crossing ability? Well, he’d look like Cristiano Ronaldo.
If I was to look for any one negative aspect of Ronaldo’s game then you could say that, just maybe, his efficiency lets him down. If a player is having that many shots, be it in the name of practice or not, should they perhaps score even more goals?
In conclusion, it is a fair assumption that no-one on the football pitch works harder than Ronaldo. He out shoots, out runs and outscores almost everybody, and continues to improve with every game.
Let’s give him his due and hail him as great, whether Messi is arguably better or not.
image: © Jan S0L0
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