If someone made a highlight video of Ronaldo in the recent match against Figo's Charity team, the video will be named ' The physical condition of Ronaldo the Phenomenon'.

He can barely move at all.

Best burst of pace in the last decade for me. Up there with overmars. The guy was an absolute bullet. He was faster than every top player today.

Is it weird that I laughed watching this video? What he did to defenders is just unbelievable... uncomparable. Best footballer I've seen live.

urbaNRoots wrote:Is it weird that I laughed watching this video? What he did to defenders is just unbelievable... uncomparable. Best footballer I've seen live.

Well he certainly one of the best attackers I ave ever seen. At his best I would rate him just below Messi.

jibers wrote:

urbaNRoots wrote:Is it weird that I laughed watching this video? What he did to defenders is just unbelievable... uncomparable. Best footballer I've seen live.

Well he certainly one of the best attackers I ave ever seen. At his best I would rate him just below Messi.

Lets be honest he would have been as good as Messi was if it wasn't for injuries. But yeah Messi has definitely surpassed him now.

Gil wrote:

jibers wrote:

urbaNRoots wrote:Is it weird that I laughed watching this video? What he did to defenders is just unbelievable... uncomparable. Best footballer I've seen live.

Well he certainly one of the best attackers I ave ever seen. At his best I would rate him just below Messi.

Lets be honest he would have been as good as Messi was if it wasn't for injuries. But yeah Messi has definitely surpassed him now.

Maybe. The thing is Messi is quite comfortably the best club player in terms of atatcking. The only other people that hold a candle on him are Cruyff, Pele, Muller and muller. Dat consistency!

No Maradona ?

RealGunner wrote:No Maradona ?

Club level? no chance. Always had issues and did sod all with napoli in the cl.

But he did guide Napoli to their only 2 Serie A titles in their History. Mostly one man show in both the seasons

RealGunner wrote:But he did guide Napoli to their only 2 Serie A titles in their History. Mostly one man show in both the seasons

They werent one man shows at all. He was their primary playmaker. Would e the equivalent of saying that Barcelona is a one man show. Those 2 season are it. Messi has had 4 WC season breaking records in almost all of them.

True, but This Barcelona team is miles, miles better than the Napoli one. WC players in every position. Would you say there were any other WC players apart from Maradona at Napoli ?

RealGunner wrote:True, but This Barcelona team is miles, miles better than the Napoli one. WC players in every position. Would you say there were any other WC players apart from Maradona at Napoli ?

With Maradona it was all about sytems. De Napoli, Careca and Bagini where vey good players, perhaps not media babies. Maradona was important but go and watch a few napoli games, his team was a very good unit.

The whole Barcelona has WC players in every position is rubbish to me. Messi, Iniesta, Alves and Xavi are the onlt three I consider that. No team has WC players in every position. Its all baout maximising your abilities withion the parameters set by systems. Maradona had too many private (maybe not ) issues to do this.

it was a bit of an exaggeration about the WC players

But I would consider Busquets as WC as well along with Pique. Villa pre-injury was.

Jives he also led Napoli to their only UEFA cup, and an argument can be made that it was the harder European cup at the time since it allowed more than one competitor from each league, although it wasn't as prestigious.

Also while Ferrara, Bagni, Careca and co. were not the shit that they're often made out to be in comments like "Maradona took Napoli to 2 league titles with a team of nobodies", they weren't exactly Xav and Iniesta either. And it's also true that the season before Maradona Napoli were 17th. He claims that it was the players, not the owner, who told him who to fire and who to hire, led by him of course. Even if this is an exaggeration, he took an active role in the remodeling of Napoli into a competitive side.

When Batistuta explained why he stayed in Florence he stated that "winning a league title with Fiorentina would be worth 10 titles". Does Maradona have 20 league titles at Napoli then?

Jibers on record saying Busquets is not WC

In an interesting turn of events, for Me...Busquets was Barca's 2nd best player last year.......how things have changed.

Le Samourai wrote:Jibers on record saying Busquets is not WC

In an interesting turn of events, for Me...Busquets was Barca's 2nd best player last year.......how things have changed.

Maybe using Busquets was not a good idea considering I think he is the best DM in europe behind carrick.

jibers wrote:

Le Samourai wrote:Jibers on record saying Busquets is not WC

In an interesting turn of events, for Me...Busquets was Barca's 2nd best player last year.......how things have changed.

Maybe using Busquets was not a good idea considering I think he is the best DM in europe behind carrick.

What a phenomenon ronaldo was, it really is a shame that those injuries really practically destroyed his opportunity to really live up to the hype of some enormous expectations in his later years.

I don't believe it's a competition anymore between messi and ronaldo (lima), it stopped being one years ago. Messi in the last 4-5 years has shown an arguably unprecedented level of consistency. His passing range, consistency, mentality, and whole weaponry is extraordinaire. His ability to sweep through defenses like he does is also uncanny. Last season he was the pichichi of europe in both goals and assists and in my opinion he really deserves the balon d or no doubt.

Some brag about he won no trophies, or no relevant ones anyways, and i find that to be rather narrow minded. Without messi, considering that villa was injured, was basically the only hope barca had at scoring, of course he's not the only goal scorer but if you look at it from the big picture you will understand without me having to elaborate. Without messi barcelona would have won nothing, done nothing, or to put it in milder terms, basically barcelona are up to a point, messi dependant, and that talks leaps and bounds about the little guy.

Why would cr7 win? Because he won a la liga title accompanied by important goals?

Messi took barcelona by the hand and led them, if anything barcelona failed messi not the other way around. Messi led cr7 in goals and assists through out the season too, there is no way under any context in which i can consider anyone else be the balon d or.

Regarding the comparison of past players with messi atm, of course as repeatedly said, you can only compare certain things. I can confidently say that if you were to pop cryuff and muller, and pele into a modern pitch, into modern football, they would not do as well. There are many variables to take into account, but the sport has changed, and i actually find that messi would maybe even hold more chance of succeeding in the past than the past figures in the future. We can only compare impact, and talent if possible, and albeit it is not tennis, a pete sampras or bjorn borg would get destroyed in the modern game, having to fix their whole game, while the players of the now wouldnt have to change as much. By "pop" i mean literally just pop, without training under the conditions, but thats too hypothetical, almost irrelevant to talk about.

Same for football, technology change, and some other things. The topic could be discussed for days and years but im confident im my conclusion that the recent > past under various contexts.

I also find it a bit irrelevent to discuss what maradona had around him under a certain context or what he could have done, etc. We can only judge from what we see, other wise the rest is hypothetical, and i can't see any player in history touch messi in any way. Sounds a bit brash but i mean it.

The consistency, talent, and results are extraordinary.

Best player I've ever seen. The way he combined the Messi-esque dribbling and runs with Dinho's skills and tricks is amazing. He was an alien.

The Chosen One of Football.. Only injuries were able to stop him

Great player, his quick boost of speed absolutely destroyed people.

jibers wrote:
Those 2 season are it.

Whats a world class season? you need to win a major to have a world class season? otherwise maradona had at least 6

In terms of trophies: 3 world class seasons (you forget his league title at boca)
In terms of performance (individual brilliance + consistency) : At least 6

These are messis WC seasons

07/08- no major title
08/09- league + CL
09/10- league
10/11- league + CL
11/12- league

These are maradonas

79- no major title (but voted best player in south america)
80- no major title (but voted best SA player)
81- league title (voted 2nd best SA player)
84/85- no major title
85/86- no major title
86/87- league title
89/90- league tite

what the difference? messi has more prestige playing in the champions league for the best team and breaking meaningless records. I get that though, its all about the prestige

BarrileteCosmico wrote:
Also while Ferrara, Bagni, Careca and co.

what is this thing about careca anyway? i think some brazilians must have started this stupid myth that maradona needed careca. He won serie a before careca went there