‘Ronaldo is the best!’ All Cristiano Ronaldo fans agree that he is the best player in the world. There’s even a statue of Ronaldo in western Goa.
The main reason for all the love is that he really is one of the best in the world. Even the hardcore Messi’s fans would agree that he is one of the best in the world.
And, Ronaldo’s fans can relax; we will not mention Messi again on this list. After all, Ronaldo deserves to be included in the greatest of all time.
12 Reasons Why Ronaldo is the Best
Before we go through the details, here is a quick shot that you should have a look at!
12. Played in More Leagues
It’s genuinely surprising that Manchester United would sign a sixteen-year-old kid playing for a club in Portugal. Looking back, it seems surreal, like a script of a movie.
However, it truly happened. Cristiano Ronaldo played for Sporting CP from 2002 to 2003. Even though Arsenal wanted to sign him, Manchester United signed him for a record amount.
After dominating English Premier League, he moved to the Spanish league. He scored 211 goals from 292 and won four Champion Leagues, two LaLiga titles.
Then he moved to Juventus in 2018, where he scored 81 goals from 98 matches and five trophies. Now completing a full circle, he moved back to United.
11. Longevity of Career
The sixteen-year-old Ronaldo made his debut with Sporting CP in 2002. Since then, it’s almost been two decades, and he still shows no signs of stopping.
Just for comparison, Wayne Rooney is currently working as the manager of Derby County. Rooney and Ronaldo started their career within a year apart.
However, Ronaldo is the only one who’s still playing. More importantly, Ronaldo plays for a significant team in a major league.
Sometimes, players play for American football clubs during their latter years. However, Ronaldo is still going strong, and it seems that he isn’t going anywhere soon.
10. Excellent Penalty Conversion Rate
Penalties are a different beast altogether. So many great players choke while taking the penalty.
Different ex-players have mentioned that penalties are not just about the shooting aspect. It’s also equally about the mental strength of the players.
They have to hold their nerves and win the opposition keeper. Ronaldo is just great at taking the penalties.
Only a handful of players have a penalty conversion rate above 90%. For instance, Ronaldo has a penalty conversion rate of 94%.
He has missed penalties only 28 times in his whole career. Therefore, he is the best player to take penalties during the crucial stage.
Nine out of ten times, he will net the penalty. He is the best contemporary penalty taker.
9. Capacity to Win Anywhere he Plays
Ronaldo’s record in the leagues shows that he can win with any team and at any position. He fits almost all the playing styles, and his records prove that.
The Portugal national team is not filled with many stars. Yet he has won many games for Portugal.
Most great players have a particular way of playing, and they can’t change that. If they play for a single club for a long time, they struggle to adapt elsewhere.
This doesn’t make them a bad player. But Ronaldo can win trophies in any league. He has won league titles for all teams he’s played with.
8. Fitness
Today’s football games are different from the games in the 50s and 60s. Then most players didn’t work on fitness. A single good player could outrun all the other players.
However, that’s not the case anymore. Players have all the required facilities. So, now even the slowest players in the league are fast.
If the players want to survive in the league, they’ll have to work on their fitness. Ronaldo has been active for almost two decades.
At the age of fifteen, he had heart surgery. According to his mother, the surgery was to control his irregular heartbeat.
His heart would beat faster even when he remained idle. Yet, even after the heart surgery, he was sore about missing his training.
The portugese player is still one of the finest players in the world. Unfortunately, most players either retire after they reach 30 or play in the minor leagues.
Ronaldo is still competing with the youngsters, and he’s still better than most of them.
7. Dedication
There’s a famous story told by Benzema, one of the best football players of the current generation. After joining Real Madrid, he reached the training ground early, hoping to impress the coach and the staff.
When he got there, he saw that Cristiano Ronaldo was already on the ground practicing. By the looks of it, he had been there almost an hour before Benzema.
This simple, short story shows the dedication of Ronaldo. He would go the extra mile for his team to win games.
There are football players who are born with immense natural talent. On the other hand, Cristiano Ronaldo worked hard to reach this stage.
Many of the kids would have been affected by heart surgery, but Ronaldo never let outside forces affect him.
6. Dynamic Play
In an interview, the great coach Alex Ferguson said that if he had to pick someone to win a game for him, it would be Cristiano Ronaldo. Naturally, he is a left-winger; however, he can also play as a midfielder.
In his career, he has scored more than 800 goals. Even though some have accused him of being a selfish player, he has more than 250 assists to his name.
Football pundits said that France was the favorite to win the Euro Cup. But, Portugal’s teamwork didn’t let France succeed. The Portuguese players won the Euro Cup for him.
Since he has more than 250 assists in his name, you can say that he led by example. However, individual performance doesn’t always win the game.
Ronaldo’s success story with all the teams in his career also proves that he is a team player.
4. Mentality
The match is never finished for the great players until the referee blows the whistle. Ronaldo has scored many goals towards the end or after conceding goals.
He showed his strong mentality in the recent 2020 Euro Cup also. The match between Portugal against France was essential for both teams.
Ronaldo scored the first goal, but Portugal had conceded two goals by the beginning of the second half. They had to draw the match at least to qualify for the next round.
Ronaldo scored a brilliant penalty in the 15th minute of the second half to level the game. This shows that he is always focused on creating the next chance.
Another example is the 2014 UEFA Champions League Final match between Real Madrid and Athletico Madrid. Real conceded a goal in the 36th minute.
After scoring a goal, the Athletico Madrid coach adopted the park the bus strategy. Real had to wait till the 93rd minute to score an equalizer. Truly the game isn’t finished till the referee blows the last whistle.
3. EuroCup Win
We all wanted him to win a championship for his national team. So the only reason for excluding him from the likes of Pele and Maradona was the lack of trophies for the national team.
There’s no doubt that he’s an excellent, perhaps the best of all time. Unfortunately, his national team does not have players as good as him.
To be fair, only a few teams have players on the same level as him. However, after the Euro 2016 win, he was included in the company of Pele and Maradona.
Yes, he still hasn’t won a World Cup, but Euro Cup is almost as good as a World Cup.
2. Love for his fans
In 2015, a video of Cristiano Ronaldo went viral on Youtube. In the video, he’s dressed up as a stranger and shows his skills on the streets of Madrid.
Many ignore him while some play with him. Then, finally, a kid named Nicolas starts to play with him. Ronaldo even encourages the kid to show his skills.
Finally, after playing for some time, Ronaldo decides to sign the ball and gift it to the kid. Nicolas, the kid, is shocked to see Ronaldo as he peels off his disguise.
Apart from that, he also actively engages in charity through his foundation. He has mentioned multiple times in his interviews that he genuinely respects his fans. That’s all we want from him.
- Goals Scoring Ability
We all love football strikers because they score goals. After all, the players have to score goals in order to win the matches.
Let’s just say he’s ridiculously good at scoring goals. The 38 year old has scored more than 800 goals in his career.
Cristiano can score with both his left foot and right foot. He nets the ball within and outside of the penalty area.
He’s able to convert unfavorable scenarios into goals. And, that’s what we want from the striker to score the goals.
Conclusion
Are you a Cristiano Ronaldo fan? Why do you think he’s the best? Please tell us in the comments.
