Men's Soccer (Football) Thread [ARCHIVED] Soccer • Page 1709

I know this is mad because these guys are fucking loaded, but I kind of hate this. We’re stable as a club, and progressing, we don’t need ownership issues.

 

I mean if they hadn’t advanced would Berhalter have thought it was worth it?

I 100% back needing to make a point but these tournaments aren’t really a time to mess around.

Also kinda LOL that Gio thought he was going to be gifted a huge role coming off an injury.

 

That's what I kept coming back to. You came in with THAT expectation?

 

Richarlison got a back tattoo with Ronaldo, Neymar, and his own face on his back. It’s as awful as you expect.

 

you can’t just share this info without a picture

 

dudes rock

 

It got worse

 

Ignoring the fact that PM is looking for attention, this ridiculous ranking does illustrate a point - no one ever actually compares Ronaldo and Maradona. For how long the Messi/Ronaldo debate has lasted (15 years now), I've seen the Messi/Maradona question thousands of times, and never Ronaldo/Maradona. Ronaldo's comparison point is always with Messi, Messi's is with history. No one actually believes Ronaldo's the greatest ever.

 

1. Messi
2. Maradona
3. Pele
4. Ronaldo (CR7)
5. Ronaldo (R9)

6. Pascal Cygan

 

KDB

Messi

(also sucks CBs and GKs are almost always excluded from this talk)

 

You can’t really put them in the same category really, especially goalkeepers. You almost need “best attacking players”, “best defending players”, and “best goalkeepers” categories.

 

Thierry is the most fun I've ever had watching a football player and will always be my #1, but he's obviously not in the discussion.

I think it has to be Lionel. I think it is possible that we have someone as prolific again as Ronaldo in terms of goalscoring, but noone who changes the game as much as Messi or who plays as beautifully. He's just really fucking brilliant.

Piers is just a contrarian who has a hard-on for powerful, charismatic personalities. I doubt he even really believes it.

 

I don’t really like rating historical players that I haven’t seen much of. Maradona is obviously next level from clips I’ve seen but I’ve seen very little of Pele. I’d go Messi, Ronaldo, Cristiano Ronaldo, (peak) Ronaldinho from those I’ve seen a lot of.

 

Ronaldinho is the most fun I have ever had watching a player. Pure joy. Watching his “best of” clips is like watching a super human. He did things with a football you couldn’t conceive before.

I always think he perhaps just had a shorter peak than Pele, Maradona, Messi, or CR7. Ronaldo R9 is similar, but for injury reasons.

 

I think it's a little unfair to only label Ronaldo as prolific. At his prime (which was a decent amount of time), he was as talismanic as he was prolific. He doesn't play as silkily as Messi, but as an athlete and a technician, he's easily one of the best we've ever seen. It's just unfortunate he's an absolute toolbox.

He's the brute force implement to Messi's scalpel.

 

That's fair. His athleticism and consistency has been insane. I definitely thought he was going to be playing at the highest level into his fourties, although I don't think that's going to be happening now.

I think the level of his wankery probably has detracted from his legacy.

 

Yeah that’s why I have him up there. Just pure joy distilled into a footballer. Lovely to watch. His goal against Chelsea in 2006 is seared into my brain.

funny how we almost signed him, if we did we probably wouldn’t have signed CR. I wonder how it all would have gone if that happened.

 

You could split Messi into two players, one for his goalscoring and one for his creativity/playmaking, and he'd be ranked No's 1 and 2 in an all-time list for me. There has never been anyone better with a ball at his feet.

 

I think what goes in Messi’s favor more than Ronaldo’s is that Ronaldo has never been the team player Messi has been. I don’t think people play up to Ronaldo (see Benzema coming to life after he left vs any strike partner Messi had at Barcelona). He was the talisman for years at Madrid absolutely, but compiling one of the two greatest midfields of the modern era was as equally as important to that Madrid run.

 

Ronaldo's the best athlete in the history of football. There's no shame in that.

 

The thing that works in Messi's favour for me is that he has aged extremely gracefully. In the sense of yes he's lost that yard of pace and pure acceleration he used to use, but his creativity has allowed him to take on a different role in his teams and still be their most important talisman.

Ronaldo managed to stave off the worst of aging by sheer numbers, but in the last couple of years he's very much hit a wall. Being the big balls "my way or the highway" guy only works when you're good enough to justify it and both his club and country have realised they can replace him in the aggregate. He could have reinvented himself and taken on a different role, but that would have meant conceding to age.

I would say I hope Ronaldo is remembered for how good he was in his prime, but then I remember everything else about him and, hmm.

 

lazy relation

CR7 is Aaron Rodgers? (asshole who cant come to grips with being old in the sport)
Messi is Peyton Manning (drop off of skill but so great before they find a way to win)

 

I do not know who those people are (NFL players?) but the descriptions you gave are pretty spot on for their public opinion right now.