Pele, Best, Maradona or Cristiano Ronaldo? How does CR rank with the best?

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1. April 3, 2008Pho911

   I agree with the article’s basis – that players can only fairly be compared to their contemporaries and from their achievements and stats. And on this basis I agree with Graham’s rankings.

   However, I think ranking Ronaldo and Best up there with Pele and Maradona is a stretch. I believe international success is a requisite for athletic greatness, and Ronaldo and Best do not have those honours (yet).

   As an aside, I think George Best is more a British celebrity than a global one. I live in Canada and it’s fair to say that everyone in the football community here knows who Pele, Maradona, and Ronaldo are, but very few have even heard of Best.

2. April 3, 2008i chew on jawbreakers

   cr7 is the greatest player ever. His physical attributes, skill and awareness is far beyond any of those three players mentioned. Not to mention he’s going up against far greater athletes than those guys faced in their careers! pele played in 1 league his whole career!! best didnt have the quickness or strength to do wat he did in the EPL today. Maradona was a genius with the ball, and i actually think he would be a great player today but not 30+ goals and in the fashion that cr7 has produced his.

3. April 3, 2008Andrei

   How can you compare statistics? Pele played in the Brazilian league all his life and arguably it is a pretty shit league. Best played 50 years ago when the game was much more open, Maradona would never match Ronaldo in today’s game and none of them can hold a stick to Johan Cruijff.

   The point is that, like you say, everybody has different perceptions as to who is the best player ever because everyone expects different things from a player. You are comparing goals, but by doing that you automatically discout Beckenbauer, Maldini and Yashin. You are comparing honours, but then what about players that were not fortunate enough to play on winning teams all their lives - look at Gerrard or Ronaldo (Brazilian dude).

   I think you are doing the right thing by comparing somewhat similar players, but you cannot attampt to say that any one player is the best in the world or the best of all time, because each and everyone of them brings something different to football and they are all equally important.

   Sorry to be in such utter disagreement with your piece - in which I think you put quite a bit of work - especially since I am a big fan of your articles.

4. April 3, 2008Jorgen

   Well, I must say that of all the videos the one with Ronaldo certainly is the worst, but thats because you dont see any of his goals. WHY??? He scores wonderful goals, why only the stepovers which is something he use less and less. Ronaldo play is much much more direct than the other guys and it needs to be because of the speed and moemntum of todays game. You dont have time to let your opponent get up so you can beat him twice. They just cant be compared. If he continues to go like he does now with 36 goals and may games left, he is certainly the best right now. To be the best of all time, he have to keep this going for some more time!

5. April 4, 2008MDH

   To be honest since nobody has seen Best, Maradonna or Pele play week in week out its too difficult to definitively say who is the best. Also, more importantly, Ronaldo is barely in the middle of his career and really should not be considered. Right now he’s what, 23? of course he won’t have accomplished as much as the others, hes not even widely considered the best in the world at the moment so I think as great as he is he shouldn’t really be included in the debate, yet.

6. April 4, 2008brandon

   cr7 the best player ever that people saw.he has everything,skills,fast,scorer,hesders,shooting,dribbling,stamina,everything that you want from a player.pele is a good scorer but that years of football that he play 1956 to 1974 there are no good players in defence but ronaldo has many good players and defenders in front of him.pele scorers more goals than ronaldo but pele is a striker and ronaldo is a midfielder.cr7 the best player ever.1 ronaldo 2 pele 3 maradona 4 best

7. April 4, 2008Ipanema Bob

   A while back, we were wondering whether Ronaldinho would be considered as good as Pele and Maradonna. Funny how things change.

8. April 4, 2008Ahmed Bilal

   Andrei:

   but you cannot attampt to say that any one player is the best in the world or the best of all time

   I think telling someone they can’t do something because it’s impossible to get to the answer is the worst possible argument.

   Ipanema Bob:

   I thought the exact same thing when I was editing it - Ronaldinho, Kaka, and now Ronaldo.

   Graham:

   Good stuff, I’d just change one or two things:

   Not bring personal life in it - has bearing on whether they make performances better or worse (unless you want to argue that Maradona and Best were great despite their disabilities, and thus rate them higher).

   Weight the difficulties of the leagues they played in. Pele would suffer on this on a domestic level - Best not so much on the international because a) it’s not his fault he was playing for a crap team and b) Maradona and Pele both had solid squads supporting them.

   Ronaldo was the best young player in Germany 2006 (Podolski was the politically correct choice, a joke considering their actual performances). Portugal got to the semis, which is no mean achievement, and the fact that they even had a glimmer of a chance against France then was due to Ronaldo - and he wasn’t the goalscoring machine we know today.

   Euro 2008 will be a big test - let’s see how he does for his country.

9. April 4, 2008Ahmed Bilal

   One more thing.

   I should probably write an article on this…

   There’s a tendency to paint people in black and white roles - it makes for far more powerful story-telling.

   It’s hard to think of Bush as a humanitarian or even a decent person when he has been caricaturised to death as an idiot / evil despot.

   Pele is the great white horse of football - we conveniently ignore that he played in an inferior league (would you call a Dutch player who played for Ajax all his life and scored a goal a game the best player in the world?) and that he’s not that good at analysing the game. His contributions are highlighted and those of his teammates are dwarfed.

   As an example of that, consider the adulation Ronaldo is receiving at the moment. He wouldn’t be scoring 30+ goals if it wasn’t for Rooney’s work-rate or the solid defending of Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra and Brown, or the creative midfield work of Carrick and Scholes.

   Yet as the goal-scorer, Ronaldo gets the most credit (he deserves a lot of it, but not all of it). And this is while it’s happening in front of our eyes. 10 years down the line, all we’ll have are numbers - goals scored being the most important number of them all, and Ronny will be considered a legend at the expense of those whose hard work helped him to those milestones.

   It is the same with all great players.

   The second aspect - what I alluded to earlier before I drifted off to historical distortion - is how we pigeon-hole players when telling stories about them. Steven Gerrard is often talked of as a lion - a fearless warrior and leader for whom nothing is impossible. We conveniently forget him caught on TV calling the ref names, or him diving, or him advocating xenophobic violence to his young English teammate (what a great influence).

   Gerrard is a very good player, but he’s been built up to a god and all the warts have been conveniently ignored because they don’t fit the profile.

   The same happened with Pele. The same has happened with Kaka in the past.

   It’s happening in the other direction with Maradona, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. Their negative attributes (drug abuse, diving, sex-addiction) are trumpeted when they more often than not have nothing to do with the footballing achievements of the players themselves.

   As an individual, Maradona has serious problems. As a footballer, the man is a legend who could do the impossible with a football, and did it with a single-mindedness that’s matched by very few. I don’t know if Pele was that dogged in his play. I know Ronny has it but the flash invariably distracts from it.

   It’s that single-mindedness that produces consistent runs of form. Kaka, Ronaldinho, they both got mentally tired of it at the end. Same happened to Henry. The same will happen to Ronny, unfortunately.

   But let’s not paint each player in absolutes. They are more … or sometimes less … than that.

   As for players needing to set examples - it’s as much a matter of the filters between us and football (tv commentators, press) who need to tell us the truth (Gerrard is tackled, Ronny dives, Torres is tackled, Drogba dives, and so on) as it is of parents setting the right examples. Don’t blame it all on footballers, unless you’re saying parenting and the biases of who tells us the stories about footballers (media) counts for shit these days…

10. April 4, 2008goalcentre.com

    Those players are the best in their Era. There is no one player who is the best of all time. The game change from time to time.

    No doubt about it that Ronaldo is the best player in the 21st century but Maradono is also the best in his era.

11. April 4, 2008Utsav

    I think its a vain attempt to compare them.
    1. Graham,you’ve left out some other greats like Puskas, Cruyff.
    2. I wonder why these “greats” never include defenders.
    3. Although being a huge United fan myself, i think its too premature to call ronaldo a great. Its been almost 2 seasons and he need to prove himself in international tournaments and over a longer period of time.

12. April 4, 2008Red Ranter

    Graham, I am a United fan and I still cannot say Ronaldo is the best player in the world of all time. I thought Ronaldinho was unstoppable before recent seasons showed that he was still human. For me the greatest player of the 90s had to be Zidane. It amazes me how people just ignore what he’s achieved over the course of his career, he won every conceivable trophy, delivered on the biggest stages, maintained the same level of consistency (not to mention his rather low profile personal life) — and had he not lost his head in the final (no pun intended) we might not even be having this argument. Or at least we might have included him in this list.

    Ronaldo is by far the best player of this season, but we’ll leave it at that. He’s just 23 and has a lot left to achieve before he’s spoken in the same breath of some others. At the moment, all we are doing is falling into the vortex of the media hype machine — a vortex of superlatives, that’s all.

    Or maybe I am not good with this player ratings business.

13. April 4, 2008chef barca

    you’re wrong if think pele played in an inferior domestic league compared to other players at the time…just imagine if every brazilian playing today went home and played in their national league, it’d be among the most talent laden in the world alongside england italy and spain. you can say the style of play was more open and free but not inferior. just look at pele’s team mates from the brazilian national teams back then, you say he had alot of help playing alongside legendary great players and he did, and I believe they all spent most of their club careers playing in brasil back then.

    pele-maradona
    cruyff
    ronaldo{with the bad smile}
    zidane

    that’s it…until ronaldo or messi can carry a team in the world cup the way these players did and perform at a level above and beyond their peers for the better part of a career then it’s really premature to compare them with such players.

14. April 4, 2008Kenny

    This is a tricky question to tackle. For one, how do you even compare them? Statistics? Votes? At the end of the day, it is all about personal taste and preference isn’t it?

    For me, Ronaldo has a long way to go. For me, a great has to perform on the world stage and Ronaldo has yet to perform in the same way Zidane, Maradona and Pele did at the World Cup.

15. April 4, 2008SpiralArchitect

    Ahmed -

    In terms of negative attributes, you’re comparing diving along with drug abuse & sex addiction?

    Wtf???

16. April 4, 2008Ahmed Bilal

    I’m talking about removing the impact negative attributes have on our rating of the players. Context mate, context.

17. April 4, 2008SpiralArchitect

    And diving is the worst negative attribute you could come up with for Ronaldo?

    Interesting…

18. April 4, 2008SpiralArchitect

    I’m just kidding anyway…

    I vote for Maradona with a close second from Pele followed by Best & then Ronaldo. Hear me out.

    I won’t go over all the arguments in the article or above. Most of them are valid. What i’m talking about is the most complete player out of all of them.

    I’m gonna post something about this in the forum. I have a lot of thoughts about this…If anyone’s interested then keep a look out for the title, ‘Maradona vs Pele: who was the most complete player?’

19. April 4, 2008Dave

    If you would take goals and statistics alone, Ferenc Puskas must have been top of the heap??

    Ferenc Puskas Real Madrid career that took home 3 European Cup Winners Cup Title and a fledging career that almost equalled one goal a game over his ENTIRE playing career. His record is better statistically than Pele. He did not win the world cup based solely on “the miracle of Bern” and a VERY strong west germany side. Shouldn’t he be given a fair shout? It should also be noted he revolutionize the role that Pele and Maradona excelled in. The only reason he is given any credit is the fact that there isn’t much video evidence on the great man who is named the 20th Century top goalscorer in front on Pele.

    The fact of the matter is that to name the greatest player of time is impossible entirely. It is like in basketball where Michael Jackson is named top of the heap and the media gives him the hype and discounting players like Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain and Larry Bird.

    Besides that, it must be duly noted that the technology advancement and football law changes of the later years which would have aided the later generations. And the techniques that have been discovered earlier that aided their sontemporaries.

    Finally, if we were to name the greatest player of all time, Beckenbaur and Cyruff must be given a shout as well. The libero extrodinaire that famously stayed on with a broken shoulder and the cornerstone of much of Bayern and German success is probably the prime example goalscorers get all the credit. How about Cyruff, the total footballer, the most complete player of all time. I doubt Pele, Maradona, Best of Ronaldo knows how to tackle for the sake of their lives!!!

20. April 4, 2008Andrei

    would you call a Dutch player who played for Ajax all his life and scored a goal a game the best player in the world?

    Cruijff took Ajax to three consecutive European Cups.

    “but you cannot attampt to say that any one player is the best in the world or the best of all time”

    telling someone they can’t do something because it’s impossible to get to the answer is the worst possible argument.

    I think you are misquoting here:

    but you cannot attampt to say that any one player is the best in the world or the best of all time, because each and everyone of them brings something different to football and they are all equally important.

    Sorry mate, I just don’t like to be misquoted… what I meant by that statement is that some players like Cruijff are/were overall very good, while some like Zidane are/were fantastic at whatever they do, but pretty average everywhere else. You will have a hard time comparing these two players as far aa ability goes. It is like deciding on your favorite song: you might think you have a clear favorite, but then you hear another one and now you are in doubt (you can hardly compare Betthoven’s ninth with Stairway to Heaven, I’ll bet)

    Besides that, would you not be upset if the world’s top player is found taking illegal substances? Suppose Mutu scored 40 Premier League goals in his only season at Chelsea, would he be considered a fine talent given that he took cocaine? It is the same for Maradona. He was good, but how do you know that it was not a mirage created by artificially increaesed amounts of testhostorone? I think drug use has to be included in the list while judging great player and on-pitch antics too. You would not want your role model to break people’s faces during football matches, now would you?

21. April 4, 2008DEVO

    Chef barca re: strength of the brazilian league…

    Very very good point. Before the mid 1980’s (maybe the 1982 team was the turning point) most of the players in Brazilian World Cup squads played in their own domestic league - its not like today when the best players are taken by european clubs sometimes aged 18 or 19.

    It wasn’t only Pele; Gerson, Rivelino, Tostao, Carlos Alberto and Garrincha never left Brazil to play for European clubs, Jairzinho only played 1 seasn for Marseilles in the mid 70’s and spent the rest of his career in Brazil.

    And the record of the South American clubs in the intercontinental cups against the European teams doesnt indicate a weak league, let alone a shitty one.

    Back to who is the best of all time? Who knows how to compare Maradona and more recent players against older players when film footage of Pele/Puskas/Garrincha/Di Stefano etc is so sparse. I do think Cristiano Ronaldo is the best in the world RIGHT NOW, but i think he, Kaka and Messi are of a similar level and if he stays injury free, I think Messi is good enough to have people say the same of him next year.

22. April 4, 2008Amjad

    How the hell can you be mentioning C.ronaldos name in the same breath as PELE and MARADONA???

    Talk about media hype. Mr Graham fisher if you got nothing better to do that is not our problem, please do not write rubbish articles, to even suggest that c.ronaldo is in the league of a maradona is just plain rubbish!!

    Maradona and Pele have won world cups…what has c.ronaldo won???? In fact he is not even the best player in the world today. A fully fit Ronaldinho or a fully fit Messi are far greater than him. Kaka in form is also greater.

    C.ronaldo is not even the best ronaldo. the orginal ronaldo was far greater at his peak. Orginal Ronaldo at 21 twice won world player of the year awards.

    In europe, c.ronaldo is not even fit to do the laces of Zinedine Zidane who has been the greastet european player.

    C.ronaldo will not make my top 30 ever. Greatness is measured in trophies and talent against the best. But more importantly dominating a major tournament like a World Cup or a Euro Championships.

    The day he dominates a world cup and actually wins it then he can be mentioned in the same breath as tthe greats from the past.

23. April 4, 2008Felipe

    nice article i would say it is worth reading, interesting facts, pele is the best, ronaldo on his way thou

24. April 4, 2008Graham Fisher
    I’m glad to have caused so much discussion. It is never going to be possible to name one player who is the best of all time.

    Everyone will have their favourites and there are many candidates I haven’t mentioned.

    Back in the sixties and seventies Watford had a tricky winger called Stewart Scullion Some of the people in the USA might remember him because I think he went to play for the Cosmos at the same time as Pele.

    Now he really WAS a player!

25. April 4, 2008Raed

    quick question… where the fuck is Zidane? Surely he ranks amongst these guys… and to be honest I never heard of Best until he died. Then I realized that he was some celebrated Manu player who never made it into the international level. Some players that are a better choice than Best - Johan Cruyff, Platini, Beckenbauer… to name a few. Of course these players are no where near as universal as Maradona or Pele and therefore neither is Best.

26. April 4, 2008enea

    how can you have this discussion/comparison without including the real Ronaldo, the real phenomenen?? Cristiano Ronaldo does not even compare to the real Ronaldo at his best, and in his injury pleagued career Ronaldo has achieved more than CR will ever achieve.

27. April 4, 2008Steve

    Graham,

    Can you name off the ALL-Time 11 ? That could possibly lend credit to those who request Total Football. Maybe even give honorable mention to those who just fall short. I also think it may be a little premature to jump on Ronaldo, seeing that he is having his first ‘Great’ Season. Over the span of 5 years, he isn’t the best player.

28. April 4, 2008Steve

    Personally, if Cristiano Ronaldo gets the nod, I would like to see a few more names in the mix….

    Bergkamp, Henry, Ronaldo, Baggio, Amancio, Figo, Zidane, Rivaldo, Cruyff, and van Basten.

    The list seems to be comprised of attackers, and notably, goals scored should be as important as possession and assists.

29. April 4, 2008Raed

    Actually this article is about CR, so why not compare him with Manu legends instead of pele, maradona cause they are in a class of their own. You can compare CR with Cantona, Bobby Charlton etc etc. I wouldn’t know much about MU legends since I’m not a fan

30. April 4, 2008Anthony

    It doesn’t matter what league Pele played in. His scoring record defied belief AND HE WON 3 WORLD CUPS.

    I see where the argument comes from, because it’s like Samaras going to the SPL and scoring loads, but you HAVE to be class to make the step up to INTERNATIONAL football REGARDLESS of what league you play in.

31. April 5, 2008Donal

    I’m a young, passionate United fan and a huge admirer of Ronaldo but still I am forced to cry HOLD YOUR F***ING HORSES!!! Any talk of Ronaldo in comparison to Maradona and Pele is extremely premature. If he continues to produce as he has in the current season over the next decade, and wins a number of big titles in the process (World Cup, Champions League etc.) only then will such comparisons be valid. To make them now belittles the concept of becoming an elite football legend. As for Best, that comparison seems the most apt at present because Best was a player whose enormous talent wasn’t adequately reflected in his trophy haul. Hopefully that is something which Ronaldo can change throughout the rest of his career. Then we will see about Maradona and Pele.

32. April 5, 2008Ahmed Bilal

    Your ignorance of what Best has done is no excuse for him not being on this list. Next thing you’ll tell me is that because you never saw Ruud score 44 goals in a single season, he mustn’t have done it!

    Ruud for greatest Premier League striker ever!

33. April 5, 2008Raed

    People’s ignorance of Best not achieving anything in the international level is justified, even though Portugal’s chances of winning the World Cup will always be better than of the Irish, it is still very slim. 40 years down the road, when the name Ronaldo will pop up, people’s imagination will be that of a bald fat brazilian and not some portugese winger.

34. April 5, 2008Raed

    Sigh, only Manu fans have the audacity to compare their players with the game’s top 2. What next? Liverpool fans might chip in Steven Gerard and they may claim well we have won more trophies than Manu so we have the right to compare our best against the greatest. Stop there, this whole article is stupid because:

    What you people need to understand is out of the 6 billion people alive at least 5 billion knows either Pele or Maradona or both and no other. No footballer in the near future will not gain that amount of popularity as they did unless of course someone manages to win 3-4 World Cup titles one after another.

    Point is - Pele & Maradona have already gained immortality whist the other “best” players during their time slowly faded away. Chances of another player gaining immortality is 1:kazillion.

    There is no point in comparing their abilities because regardless of the similiarities Lionel Messi will fade away. Kaka will fade away. Ronaldo will fade away. Everyone will fade away except Pele & Maradona because they define football as we know it.

    I hope this brings an end to all comparisons.

    Raed

35. April 5, 2008Bobby

    Don’t forget about the Brazillian Ronaldo. He has achieved so much and is probably one of the best strikers of all time.

36. April 5, 2008Liverpool_Fan

    I think you can rate him with Henrys and Zidanes if he keeps his form up but I’d still say he has a while till hes up to Best standard.

37. April 6, 2008Kuzorra

    All-time greatest 25 Players (in my opinion)

    1. Diego Maradona
    2. Franz Beckenbauer
    3. Pelé
    4. Zinedine Zidane
    5. Johan Cruyff
    6. Ronaldo (Brazil)
    7. Alfredo Di Stefano
    8. Ferenc Puskas
    9. Garrincha
    10. Gerd Müller
    11. Michel Platini
    12. George Best
    13. Eusebio
    14. Marco van Basten
    15. Lothar Matthäus
    16. Bobby Charlton
    17. Paolo Maldini
    18. Zico
    19. Ronaldinho
    20. Ruud Gullit
    21. Thierry Henry
    22. Roberto Baggio
    23. Luis Figo
    24. Fabio Cannavaro
    25. Cristiano Ronaldo & Lionel Messi

38. April 8, 2008Muhammad Khan

    you guys have no sence of football those days football was not as quick like these days butt defanders have more rights than attackers deffensive sttrickness was zero swo i rate pele and best better than any one my to 5 players 1 George Best and Pele 2 Diego Maradona 3 yohan Cruyff 4 Frenc Puskas 5 Franz Beckenbauer

39. April 8, 2008Izaq

    i think Muhammad Khan is right those days football for attacking players was very difficult and a player like george Best stands in those dirty tackeles was THE BEST ONLY GEORGE BEST. AND ALSO HE WAS THE MOST GIFTED PLAYER IN THE HISTORY HE PLAYDED FOOTBALL FOR FUN AND STILL FIFA RATED him 3 greatest player. think if he has trained properly like other footballers then what just think.George Best the real best

40. April 14, 2008Shomshir

    Cristiano Ronaldo scores 30+ goals; rotating from wing to striker, and now he is in the same league as Maradona and Pele. What utter rubbish!

    I can’t remember him performing against a major opposition; and please don’t tell me Cristiano Ronaldo is a genius, he’s a goal poacher at best.

    You people should take something into account before you agree with the english media. That is Cristiano Ronaldo’s stats this season.

    Cristiano Ronaldo 07/08
    39 games
    37 goals
    7 assists
    227 shots taken
    117 shots on target

    Now let’s compare his stats to another midfielder, but who is 3 years younger.

    Messi 07/08
    27 games
    15 goals
    14 assists
    75 shots taken
    38 shots on target

    Comparing both stats you can see the real truth. Cristiano Ronaldo is definately an upgraded Frank Lampard, and I would take Messi, Kaka, Henry, and the real best player when on form Ronaldinho any day. The only fools who wont accept the truth are the ones who are blind, and those who support Man U.

    Pele and Maradona are the greatest along with players like Maldini, Cruyff, Beckenbauer, Zico, the real Ronaldo, and Zidane. There are reasons for this. They have done it all.

    Ok! you can’t compare the football back in those days to todays. However, back in Pele’s day, the Brazilian League apparently was the best league in the world, and also back then they did not have the same fitness training as the ones we have now. Also back then alot of footballer drank alcohol before a match, and they also played with a football that was heavy and hard, and with boots that weren’t crafted by the nike team for accuracy, precision, and power.

    With todays advancements Pele and Maradona would have been better.

    Comparing Cristiano Ronaldo to Pele and Maradona is like comparing Allen Iverson to Michael Jordan and Larry Bird.

41. April 15, 2008Ron-Al-Do

    Can’t believe I had to read through 26 replies before the true Ronaldo’s name was mentioned. Thank you enea. It’s far too early to mention CR’s name next to all these great players, he has much to accomplish before he earns that right. First thing is some damn humility and humbleness. Arrogance is an ugly trait and he exudes it. Confidence is good and it’s a fine line between the two but he crosses that line far too much.

    I will commend some of the free kicks I’ve seen CR take though, great combinations of power, dip and accuracy. Although I don’t want to open another can of worms because the best free kick specialists is another story…

42. April 16, 2008tony montana

    you cant compare this fluke you are right shomshir about he just a new version of lampard while comparing him to George Best aaa people say that George Could be far better than Pele if He didnot killed his football by his own hands and taken game serously because he was the most gifted Footballer ever

43. April 16, 2008master

    maradona good pele better and George Best

44. April 17, 2008pupsik

    maradona was able to read the game better than all of you!
    he is complete genius

45. April 19, 2008somjithazra

    i think i will find two years later an article :who is besi pele maradona or x…
    it really doesnt matter,who scored more goals?well then think how many goals were used to be scored in those days..,think what position they played in..
    well statistics are like miniskirts, they give you good information but hides the most important things.

    now come to the pure joy factor,the art of dribbling,creativity,passing,constructing a movement; so here comparison should stop someone just have to admire diego,and to a lesser extent crueff .

    now who said cocaine helped playing football?….
    cocaine destroyed diego,otherwise this article would have been started by diego maradona or x…

46. April 19, 2008somjithazra

    Cristiano Ronaldo 07/08
    39 games
    37 goals
    7 assists
    227 shots taken
    117 shots on target

    Now let’s compare his stats to another midfielder, but who is 3 years younger.

    Messi 07/08
    27 games
    15 goals
    14 assists
    75 shots taken
    38 shots on target

    thanks for this stat

47. April 23, 2008Tom

    The article reminded me of some youtube comments I read, regarding boxing. People just insisted on comparing fighters who were in different categories, different eras, different weights, and so on. Obviously we all love to think about the “what if”. What would we think if Pele and Ronaldo were contemporaries? What would Maradona play like if he hadn’t used cocaine?
    And the thing is that probably every statement is correct: Pele was the best, then Best was himself (attempt of a joke), then Maradona was the best, and probably if C Ronaldo keeps improving he might be the new best thing at a sport that keeps changing, but he shouldn’t be on the list, because all the other players finished their carrers and he hasn’t.
    Nowadays I think it’s more complicated to state these things. For example, we all talked about Ronaldinho, we still talk about Kaká, we still talk about Messi but we can’t be sure of the fact that they will actually finish their careers, maybe they’ll just burst up in flames from all the hype.
    The last few brazilian footballers that were considered to be idols or the next big thing, like Ronaldo or Ronaldihno always proved to have some other thing on their priorities, they slipped, became lazy or probably felt like they already had achieved everything because we were all saying so. Players should just be, let them grow and become what they should become. They are instead playing to achieve the high standards our cultures set for them, because we know who Pele and Maradona were. I say we give the new faces a break. There are amazing players waiting to shine nowadays, and at this point we’ve seen so many great things that the only way for us to be surprised would be seeing a player who could score goals with his mind.

48. April 24, 2008Sheraz

    Maradona / Zidane / Pele

    Are three players that site Above the world …

    They all won every thing there is to win in world during their time.

    They WERE dominant and WINNERS in their prime !!

    Sure Pele won 3 medals but COME on he is playing with 10 Brazilians !!!

    Maradona came in 1986 with a total Crap team.
    Maradona came in 1990 with another Crap team.
    Maradona in 1994 was with his first good team with likes of Batistuta but we all know what happened.

    Anyways - The point to note is GREAT players WIN …
    The win against ODDs , and with odds!!

    Zidane was DOMINENT in 1998 , then european championship , then confederation cup

    Look what happend to France in 2002 !! with out him ?

    Pele is also a good champion - I am not sure how much silverware he would win but he would win 1 on his own.

    Cristiano Ronaldo has only won local leagues !!!
    Lost the European cup in his home town !!! to Greece !!!
    Then got eliminated in World cups !!!
    and then he CRIED tears like a 19 year old which he was then…

    Christiano Ronaldo - has to win with PORTUGAL to gain respect !!! Just like Maradona did with argentina …

    Or dominate Champions league for 4-5 years to be anywhere close to GREAT 3

    PELE/ZIDANE/MARADONA (THE UNTOUCHABLE) you can’t touch these

    Next in line (Cryuf/Beckenbouver)

    TOP 5 Players have been RESERVED!!

    Curently CR sits with likes of Batistuta/Weah/Gigs …

    He is NOT … WORLD BEATER!!!
    Win with PORTUGAL!!!

49. April 25, 2008George Best

    60 s and 70s football was very difficult it preffers deffander you can tackle from any where no proper rules so for me pele and george best equaly greatest players ever if GEORGE BEST have not wasted his talent by alchohal and not attending training sessions PROPERLY LIKE OTHER PLAYERS than only one great Geoge Best Because he was more giffted than any other player

50. April 26, 2008Owen

    I read this article only to be stunned by the 1st line. comparing cristiano with pele, maradona etc???? CR has not even nearly earned his place in the top 10 in history. The only Ronaldo who deserves such a prestigious accolade is … Ronaldo ! R9. I.e the real Ronaldo, who should go down in the top 5 in history. And he was out for almost 3 years with injury. He’s also now trying to come back from the same injury at 31. Even Van Basten ( another great ) gave up at 29 with a lesser injury. CR may have scored a bucket load of goals this term but it doesnt mean he can be placed on such a podium. The thing is, it’s not just goals! His performances have been very good, but not outrageous. R9 was otrageous for example; in 95,96,97,98 and even 99. Cristiano Ronaldo is a very impressive and talented player, beyond the boundaries of the norm, but has become miraculously OVERHYPED by British media.

51. April 28, 2008alisunday

    rubbish rubbish.thank u for comparing the stats between c.ronaldo&messi.A REASONABLE PERSON would notice frm dat stats that ronaldo is better.u are just hating u who is saying he his an upgraded lampard.ronaldo is good and there is no doubt about dat.let me tell u he is taking portugal 2 d final of euro 08 and portugal will win it.i guess u must be an arsenal fan you shomshir.

52. April 30, 2008Tom

    How can Cristiano Ronaldo be the best in the world if he’s not even the best player in Manchester United? We can all agree he’s not a team player and he seems to suffer when the play is conceived somewhere other than his feet. Not to mention at times he’s playing for the cameras, and the first game against Barcelona proved that. Watching him pose before shooting the flawed penalty was disgusting, how about some humility? How about scoring? as long as you’re gonna brag..
    An effective Rooney, or Tevez on a good day can totally erase Ronaldo’s overrated footwork. The problem with strikers is their need to rise above the team and score, and while assistances are good, scoring is the way for them to justify their presence in the line-up. They play a game within every game, in which they personally need to shine beyond collective work. I think Rooney and Tevez can actually manage to score while being team players, which will turn out to be more useful than Ronaldo if he doesn’t score. The links of a chain can both work as a team and individually score, and Ronaldo is most definitely not a reasonable candidate yet because he thinks HE is a chain.

53. May 3, 2008Shomshir

    ‘alisunday’ I am not an Arsenal fan, I’m an Inter Milan fan. If you want to compare Cristiano Ronaldo to Messi then compare both at the age of 20. Messi is already in the top 3 players in the world. The only thing Cristiano Ronaldo does in a match is goal poach, dive, dive ,dive, “cough” some stepovers, and dive a bit more. I can tell you Portugal won’t make it to the final. They will need someone in the calibre of Zidane and Maradona to get them to the final. Cristiano Ronaldo is like Jairzinho, just goals.

54. May 3, 2008Owen

    He’s a showboater with a whole load of steppovers. People ,stop comparing him with the greats. Up there with pele , maradona and co.? Piss off! I’m serious. The bleeding Brithish media and Sky Sports hype this guy to kingdom come. There is only one Ronaldo to all true football fans.

55. May 8, 2008A.

    Hold your horses folks. C Ronaldo has to first prove he’s better than his contemporaries before going up against the all time best.

    p.s. Zidane is in at least 3rd position, all time.

56. May 8, 2008A.

    Both Kaka and Messi outshine him in big matches and they’re ability to dominate big matches is on a another level to C Ronaldo.

57. May 8, 2008A.

    In my considered opinion, the top 10 all time is:

    1. Maradona
    2. Pele
    3. Zidane
    4. Cruyff
    5. Di Stefano
    6. Garrincha
    7. Platini
    8. Puskas
    9. Best
    10. Van Basten

58. May 8, 2008A.

    Pele’s an ass for bringing up Maradona’s left foot as an issue. He doesn’t realise (or is being disingenuous) that Maradona’s left footed preponderance is a matter or style and aesthetics and very much deliberate. The man was a consumate master and as such had a perfectly good other foot.

    Just like he had tremendous skill in heading but was short. Don’t blame the man for his genes.