And this week's 'Andy Gray Award' for most idiotic, ignorant, asinine comment goes to super agent Jorge Mendes.

This morning the Portuguese negotiator was quoted by Expresso as claiming that his client Cristiano Ronaldo is the "greatest player in the history of football”.

“I think that it is thanks to his speed, his great technique and his power in the air. People will agree with me over time," he explained.

Now we all know that most agents will say anything to spark a bit of publicity for their puppies. Potential sponsors who know nothing about football will see the headline "CR7=t3h be5t" and come to Ronaldo with open cheque-books hoping for endorsements. Some will argue that Mendes' comments are to be ignored as they are strictly business-related.

However, for the uninformed football fans and readers out there - especially the younger audience - it is important to stress just how ludicrous Mendes' quotes are.

Best player debates always cause controversy. As Goal.com's Kris Voakes moaned a few weeks back: "In a sport which is so intrinsically team-based, why oh why people need to pick the bones out of everything Player X does in comparison to Player Y, heaven only knows. And some like to then break down the merits of footballers over a period of up to half a century and decide that Player Q is actually better than either X or Y. But one of the best things about football is that it generates such a vast array of opinions, and the ‘greatest player in the world’ debate is just another topic for people to get their teeth into, so who am I to stop them?"

And you won't stop me Kris.

Below, there are 100 players I managed to compile in less than an hour who I believe are better players over the course of history than Cristiano Ronaldo - when weighing up individual ability and success. Due to the shortage of obtainable 90-minute footage prior to 1960, players from the 1950s and earlier were not considered in this list. There are also many others, particularly South American-based stars such as Alberto Spencer, who could be regarded superior to Ronaldo but would take too much space to justify.

Ronaldo is not in the Top 3 Portuguese players of all time yet, and he is not even in the top 100 players of the last 50 years. Care to argue about it Jorge? I will gladly debate it with you!


The Cristiano Ronaldo 100

Argentina


Cristiano Ronaldo better than Maradona?

Lionel Messi
Javier Zanetti
Diego Maradona
Daniel Passarella
Mario Kempes
Omar Sivori
Alfredo Di Stefano

Brazil


Better than Pele?

Lucio
Ronaldinho
Cafu
Ronaldo
Rivaldo
Romario
Zico
Falcao
Junior
Rivelino
Jairzinho
Gerson
Tostao
Pele
Djalma Santos
Garrincha
Jose Altafini
Nilton Santos
Didi
Zito

Bulgaria

Hristo Stoichkov

Czech Republic

Pavel Nedved

Denmark

Michael Laudrup
Allan Simonsen

England

Bobby Charlton
Bobby Moore
Gordon Banks

France


Better than Zidane?

Zinedine Zidane
Lilian Thuram
Marcel Desailly
Michel Platini
Jean Tigana
Alain Giresse

Germany


Better than Beckenbauer?

Juergen Kohler
Lothar Matthaus
Andreas Brehme
Rudi Voeller
Karl Heinz Rummenigge
Uli Stielike
Rainer Bonhof
Paul Breitner
Franz Beckenbauer
Gunter Netzer
Wolfgang Overath
Gerd Muller
Karl-Heinz Schnellinger
Uwe Seeler

Hungary

Florian Albert
Ferenc Puskas
Sandor Kocsis

Italy


Better than Maldini?

Gianluigi Buffon
Fabio Cannavaro
Alessandro Nesta
Paolo Maldini
Giuseppe Bergomi
Roberto Baggio
Franco Baresi
Roberto Donadoni
Antonio Cabrini
Gaetano Scirea
Dino Zoff
Claudio Gentile
Giacinto Facchetti
Sandro Mazzola
Luigi Riva
Gianni Rivera

Mexico

Hugo Sanchez

Netherlands


Better than Cruyff?

Edgar Davids
Frank Rijkaard
Ruud Gullit
Marco van Basten
Ruud Krol
Johan Neeskens
Johan Cruyff

Northern Ireland

George Best

Poland

Kazimierz Deyna
Grzegorz Lato

Portugal


Better than Eusebio and Mueller?

Luis Figo
Eusebio
Mario Coluna

Peru

Teofilo Cubillas

Scotland

Kenny Dalglish
Jimmy Johnstone

Soviet Union

Oleg Blokhin
Albert Shesternyov
Lev Yashin
Igor Netto

Spain

Xavi
Andres Iniesta
Francisco Gento
Luis Suarez
Raul
Jose Santamaria


Yugoslavia

Dejan Savicevic
Dragan Dzajic

Mr Nick09 wrote:Just curious what your opinion is, we already Messi is better and in the top 3 of the greatest of all time, no need to waste time on that.

But Ronaldo is the other superstar of this current era, so where does he fit as a player in that list?

baresi wrote:

Mr Nick09 wrote:Just curious what your opinion is, we already Messi is better and in the top 3 of the greatest of all time, no need to waste time on that.

But Ronaldo is the other superstar of this current era, so where does he fit as a player in that list?

Right behind Messi, if Messi is top 3 then he is top 4, if Messi is best ever then he is 2nd.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:I see GOATs in tiers. Tier A being Maradona, Cruyff, Di Stefano, Beckenbauer, Pele and Messi (unless he royally f*cks up the rest of his career).

Ronaldo belongs in Tier B, with the likes of Platini, Van Basten, Yashin, Scirea and Xavi.

Not exactly a bad place to be

Zealous wrote:

BarrileteCosmico wrote:I see GOATs in tiers. Tier A being Maradona, Cruyff, Di Stefano, Beckenbauer, Pele and Messi (unless he royally f*cks up the rest of his career).

Ronaldo belongs in Tier B, with the likes of Platini, Van Basten, Yashin, Scirea and Xavi.

Not exactly a bad place to be

I am also a believer in the GOAT tier system and more or less agree with you.