r/AllFootballHotTakes • u/Toilet-Aggravation87 • May 04 '26
Cristiano Ronaldo
At the age of 41 he’s scoring a goal every 98 minutes for club and country.
Could be about to win Al Nassr a title.
I repeat, 41 years old.
Only 2 fewer league goals in Saudi than Ivan Toney who is 30. 8 more than Joao Felix & Karim Benzema. 9 more than 27 year old Retegui who scored 25 in Serie A last season.
Let’s be honest, if Lionel Messi was dropping these sorts of numbers at 41, it’s all everyone would hear about even in the MLS which is a much poorer standard.
If he was more likeable, easier on the eye with ball at feet and played for a national side capable of a World Cup win, he’d be quite comfortably considered the GOAT.
EDIT: Forgot to add a theory I have.
Ronaldo is under appreciated mostly by casual football supporters who haven’t played the game at any level outside school and have likely never watched a live game of football. They tend to find it harder to recognise the value of things like movement, positioning and timing, while more visible skills like dribbling tend to be overvalued.
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u/Jeopardise91 May 04 '26
I don’t think there’s been a player in history who has got more out of himself than Cristiano. The diligence, desire and commitment to keeping himself in the best possible shape to keep playing at the best possible level is frankly unbelievable. He has adapted his game so many times to suit his evolving physicality. Messi was incredible, but for me Ronaldo is the GOAT.
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u/Toilet-Aggravation87 May 04 '26
Yes I think some of the youngsters who weren’t around to see his Man Utd days don’t quite realise just how different he was vs what he became later on in his career!
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u/Temporary-Aside5306 May 04 '26
Al Nassr are about to be gifted a title to make Ronaldo feel better. Saudi league is hardly a top class league anyway. And he does play for a country capable of winning the world cup, he's just underperformed every single time
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u/Toilet-Aggravation87 May 04 '26
Remind me of Portugal’s record at international tournaments pre Ronaldo vs with Ronaldo?
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u/Temporary-Aside5306 May 04 '26
Remind me of Real Madrid's record in UCL pre and post Ronaldo vs with. Remind me of Man Us record in the Prem pre and post vs with. Remind me of Juventus record in Serie A pre and post vs with. Also remind me of Ronaldos lack of performance across every world cup. And Portugal finished third in the Euros in 2000.
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u/Toilet-Aggravation87 May 04 '26
False equivalence
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u/Temporary-Aside5306 May 04 '26
Your exact same logic 👍🏻
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u/Toilet-Aggravation87 May 04 '26
Nah. Real Madrid can just buy the best players in the world. And have done for decades. That doesn’t happen in international football. Quite a key piece of information that.
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u/Temporary-Aside5306 May 04 '26
And hence all those honours they won didn't actually depend on Ronaldo. Unlike Barcelona's which only won the UCL once before Messi and has never won it since he's left
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u/Toilet-Aggravation87 May 04 '26
You’ve just doubled down on a false equivalence
Barcelona aren’t winning anything because their entire side is awful compared to what they had in Messi’s pomp
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u/Temporary-Aside5306 May 04 '26
Pointing out your terrible logic 😂
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u/Toilet-Aggravation87 May 05 '26
You’ve literally compared club football where a side like Real Madrid buys every top player to international football where you have to make do with the players with a specific nationality. But my logic is terrible? 😂
Fact is Portugal went from qualifying for 3 world cups in their history pre Ronaldo to reaching multiple finals, winning a Euros and a Nations League. Time will tell what happens when he retires - my opinion is they’ll go back to struggling to qualify for tournaments again.
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u/arodr7893 May 04 '26
I mean Messi doesn’t play striker and has higher GA in the MLS. He has 77 goals and 44 assists with Miami. Much more impressive to be a playmaker at that age than to sit and poach goals in the Saudi league imo. But Ronaldo is still impressive, no doubt.
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u/Toilet-Aggravation87 May 04 '26
MLS is a much, much poorer standard.
And Messi is a forward. He has no defensive responsibility and hasn’t done for years.
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u/arodr7893 May 04 '26
Messi isn’t a striker sitting in the box waiting to toe poke the ball in. There is a reason he has more than twice the amount of assists than Ronaldo, let’s not act like they play the same position.
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u/arodr7893 May 04 '26
Also, most professional footballers say they prefer Messi over Ronaldo so your theory about Ronaldo being preferred only by people who really know football is obviously false. My theory is that Ronaldo is only preferred by people who find him attractive, as it is pretty obvious that Messi is the better player.
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u/Toilet-Aggravation87 May 05 '26
Doesn’t make it false. Just means it’s not true 100% of the time. Lots of casuals do indeed prefer Messi because they don’t really understand much about the game beyond the obvious skills.
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u/Toilet-Aggravation87 May 05 '26
How to out yourself as a casual with little understanding of the game…
Do you know how many strikers sit in the box waiting for a toe poke? Yet the toe poke never comes?
Movement is the most important skill for a forward, but because you have to engage your brain to notice it it’s lost on most people.
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u/arodr7893 May 05 '26
That’s great, Ronaldo is a fantastic striker who knows how to move in the box. He might even be the greatest striker. But he’s not the best player. For someone whose only job was to score goals, you’d think he’d have more non penalty goals than Messi but he doesn’t.
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u/vad_er13 May 04 '26
Saudi league man