Ronaldo

[Blackened]

Illness​

A very provocative title. But let`s get to it!

R9, Brazilian Ronaldo, El fenomeno, the fat Ronaldo, whoever you may call him is often touted as being the greatest striker of all time as well as one of the greatest footballers of all time. Is this really the case? At his peak (which was VERY short-lived) he had monstrous pace, strength, incredibly dribbling skills and great, natural ability to finish. However, my main argument is very simple. And this is... He wasnt a complete footballer. No, let`s take it back.... He wasnt ANYWHERE NEAR of being a complete baller.

First of all, he couldnt head at all. He is listed at being slightly over six feet tall or 184 cm, which is tallish. He had a husky, broad, powerful physique and with his reputation and all, one might think he was a great aerial threat. He wasnt. He couldnt head. He scored only a couple of headed goals and those (if you watch them at youtube) were kinda pedesterian.

He couldnt take freekicks. One argument is, that he was surrounded players who were themselves freekick masters. Ronaldinnho, Roberto Carlos, David Beckham, Zinedine Zidane, Andrea Pirlo were all wonderful freekick takers. Yet, in spite of all of that, I have never seen one, not one time were Ronaldo scored from a freekick.

His decision making was horrible. Yes, youtube is full of clips of him beating defenders, doing step-overs, dribbling and all of that fancy stuff, but, BUT... how often did that exactly result in a goal? There are tons of footage of him beating one, two, THREE defenders but then... nothing. When there was time to pass the ball to a team-mate who was in a better goalscoring position, that never happened. He was too much caught-up with the situation. He was not a what they call a "ball IQ" player. Too invidualistic, not street-smart. Many of his heroic dribbling led to nothing.


I can think of a number of other things, but these three are the first things out of my mind. Feel free to comment. Mind you, I loved to watch him as a kid. I just feel that nostalgia has played a good part in his favour.

 

[Gnidrologist]

Don't think anybody ever used term "complete footballer" regarding him. He was an absolute monster of a striker, which what he is goated for.

 

[Temptation]

This will be fun

 

[Windhook]

I can't have this conversation again.

There's a R9 thread, just post this there.

In this form this is like some Vietnamese sex chats that get posted from time to time here.

 

[jamrock]

Yes

 

[Blackened]

I can't have this conversation again.

There's a R9 thread, just post this there.

In this form this is like some Vietnamese sex chats that get posted from time to time here.

It took me several minutes to write all of this, do not erase this thread.

 

[fergus90]

His Real Madrid career was overrated, spent the large majority of it fat as a pig. 90’s Ronaldo was unbelievable.

 

[ZenI]

erase this thread

 

[Windhook]

It took me several minutes to write all of this, do not erase this thread.

Copy text to main thread. No big drama, unless you seek attention.

 

[MonteCuler]

Only argument you have against him being the best ever striker is no CL titles, that's it. But his world cup career more than compensates for it.

Talent wise, no argument. Unique and unexplainable combination of speed and technique, running at insane speeds his technique was still crazy. He made legendary defenders look like clowns in his presence, many named him as the toughest they ever faced. Look at what he did to Nesta, 98 super cup.

Greatest ever footballer is more of hypothetical talk if not for injuries. In this state of reality it can be regarded as overrating but I don't think there's many people who do that, maybe some nostalgic Brazilians. But trust me there are more overrated players...

 

[Temptation]

Overrated in terms of legacy in all time debates? Yes. His body of work isn't as good as the other all time greats at club level. A lot of it is what-if scenarios and nostalgia.

Overrated in terms of his talent and ability? No. He was insanely talented and did things which were unique. We all love watching his clips.

Overrated in terms of his influence? No. Many players today were R9 fans and tried to copy his moves in their younger days. He's extremely influential to the generation of players born in the 80s.