Who is better, Neymar or Ronaldinho?

I remember doing a couple of polls comparing Messi to Ronaldinho previously. Funnily enough, Ronaldinho always won those polls. I think nowadays, no one would argue that Ronaldinho is the better player of the two (although I was sure of it back then too, and Ronaldinho kept winning the polls) so I think we should now compare the quality and importance of Ronaldinho to Neymar.

Two brazilians, playing at the same position, with similar style and importance to us, and who both of them played with Messi, although a better different Messi. So who is better?

Ronaldinho hands down.
Neymar still has a lot to do to prove his worth to the club.

Poor lad nerman is going to get ass whooped imo comparing him with one of the most loved and decorated player in history.

Love should stay out of the comparison, we are comparing football players, not friends or lovers.

two factors responsible for any action are Love and Fear - Sigmund Freud

Its always funny how these comparisions look stupid at first...

Pirloisjesus wrote:two factors responsible for any action are Love and Fear - Sigmund Freud

Well, Freud is one of those characters that for some reason is given huge importance, but who in reality only said utter bullshit.

Bankz wrote:Its always funny how these comparisions look stupid at first but turns out to be completely opposite at the end of the day...

What do you mean?

What I'm trying to say is that it is easy for people to dismiss certain modern day players mostly cause of nostalgia without even getting to compare them objectively and fairly.. You keep hearing things like 'hell no! Not a chance!! How can u even compare them?? Omg, what a stupid comparision!!! E.t.c similar to how nobody tought any player could hit 50 goals at first, then they did 60, then messi did 70+ and consecutively at that. Or how it would have been absurd to think cr7 would break rauls record in 7 seasons or messi being barca all time top scorer for example.

In all seriousness though all the fog of love admiration and most importantly nostalgia makes very hard to see Ronaldinho and Zidane as actually as footballers compare to players playing currently. We somehow think of them as infallible contrary to current players like nerman who we readily criticize. Hence I think this is fight neymar can't win.

Just because messi proved everyone wrong doesn't mean every other next big thing will be as successful as messi.
for all we know neymar could leave in three season wanting a new challenge

free_cat wrote:

Pirloisjesus wrote:two factors responsible for any action are Love and Fear - Sigmund Freud

Well, Freud is one of those characters that for some reason is given huge importance, but who in reality only said utter bullshit.

Ridiculously stupid statement.

On topic, Ronaldinho.

Hapless_Hans wrote:

free_cat wrote:

Pirloisjesus wrote:two factors responsible for any action are Love and Fear - Sigmund Freud

Well, Freud is one of those characters that for some reason is given huge importance, but who in reality only said utter bullshit.

Ridiculously stupid statement.

On topic, Ronaldinho.

Not really. He was an illuminated. Someone who invented stuff and passed it as truth. Nothing more thn any random cult leader, minus creating the cult.

On topic, I'm not sure. We'll have to think about it.

Pirlo has said it all tbh.. While we're at it, hope we do realize at 23 years of age neymar completely destroys a 23 years old dinho and then some (titles, awards, goals, assists, pedigree, quality)?
Hope we also realize that we're comparing a 35 year old legend to a 23 year old who just started his career?
If all things are equal with neymar and dinho giving 2 equally strong teams, with the team built around them, well, I would pick neymar anyday of the week.
While dinho has a better ball control, a better passer, his creativity and the eye candy was basically because the team was built around him so he had the freedom and freerole to do what he wanted. Put neymar in that same situation and watch neymar ball and then some... The fact that neymar has insane goal scoring quality in his CV is so much of a huge advantage that no one can overlook, I mean 200+ goals and 130+ assists at 23? Good lord!!!
Now, Can u imagine a 23 yo Dinho arriving to a greatest of all time team with a 25 year old greatest of all time player in messi on the back of the greatest of all time era and a 26 year old PRIME greatest of all time goal machine in Cr7 as a direct rival? Lol
Now, even with all the tricks in the world, can u imagine neymar getting away with a 16 goal and 10 assist season in this time even with him winning a treble? The media will eat him alive ffs!!! To make it worse, his team mate (messi) and rival Cr7 are busy hitting some 60+ goals to make him look stupid? Lol

Bankz wrote:Pirlo has said it all tbh.. While we're at it, hope we do realize at 23 years of age neymar completely destroys a 23 years old dinho and then some (titles, awards, goals, assists, pedigree, quality)?
Hope we also realize that we're comparing a 35 year old legend to a 23 year old who just started his career?
If all things are equal with neymar and dinho giving 2 equally strong teams, with the team built around them, well, I would pick neymar anyday of the week.
While dinho has a better ball control, a better passer, his creativity and the eye candy was basically because the team was built around him so he had the freedom and freerole to do what he wanted. Put neymar in that same situation and watch neymar ball and then some... The fact that neymar has insane goal scoring quality in his CV is so much of a huge advantage that no one can overlook, I mean 200+ goals and 130+ assists at 23? Good lord!!!
Now, Can u imagine a 23 yo Dinho arriving to a greatest of all time team with a 25 year old greatest of all time player in messi in it on the back of the greatest of all time era and a 26 yo PRIME goal machine in Cr7 as a direct rival? Lol

I agree with this. Different circumstances.

While we are at it, Neymar and Dinho are similar with the ball at their feet. The difference is in their approach. Dinho was a midfielder, Neymar a forward.

While we're also at it, hope we know that Neymar annihilates dinho for the national team?
Neymar @23 - 67 games - 46 goals - 28 assists.
Dinho @35 - 98+ games - 33 goals - 16 assists.
12 years younger, 31 games less, 13 goals more, 12 assists more.
These were dinhos team mates in 02 - 04
Wc ronaldo, wc rivaldo, wc carlos, wc cafu, wc lucho.
These were dinhos team mates from 05 - 08
Prime adriano, prime kaka, prime robinho, prime fabiano.
Now, these are/were neymar team mates from
11 to date
lord Fred, willian, firminho, king oscar, gustavo, pato, fernandinho, calamity luiz, hulk...LooooL!!!

You can't compare the output of a midfielder and a forward...

Ronaldinho was definitely a forward. He played the same position as Neymar and was a goalscorer too. Not a midfielder by any sense of the word, unless you mean an extremely attacking midfielder, which is the same Neymar is tbh.

Not for Brazil though, for Brazil he is the main man in the offense whereas Dinho was one more player in a team of super stars.

tough to call this one, different roles. ronaldinho played as an attacking mid when he just joined barcelona, but in his prime there he played more down the left wing/left forward spot.
that said, some people drive the bus, others are passengers. right now, messi drives that bus, yes i know, neymar has multiple goals and assists and all that, but for now, he's a passenger (yeah yeah i know he scored 4 and messi's injured)...ronaldinho was the driver of the bus a couple of years ago. i don't like comparing drivers with passengers. their styles are similar but neymar at barcelona should be compared with other passengers like henry, villa, pedro, sanchez

the flip side to it all is, neymar drives the brazilian bus, something ronaldinho never did when they won. he had good games e.g. against england and belgium, but he wasn't the driver. and when nike tried to put him in the drivers seat at the 06 world cup, it turned out a fiasco...at that point everybody wanted to drive

from a strictly skill-level standpoint, neymar's close, he can do probably do everything ronaldinho could do except maybe he's not as physical, and probably not a better long passer of the ball...its too early to place him ahead of ronaldinho though. but considering ronaldinho's short stint on top and quick fall, neymar can surpass him quickly if, one, he can make that barcelona side his team, and two, his time at the top doesn't drop at the same rate ronaldinho's did....i always felt ronaldinho was given too much too quickly

oh and if messi still remains as the batman of that team, yet, neymar leads brazil to world cup success, he'd have surpassed ronaldinho in my book....

Lol, dinho was never a midfielder, he was a left forward who had a lot of freedom to roam as he saw fit (something he would never have gotten with messi in the first place) so, u would mostly see him between midfield and attack.
Infact I recall that dinho started his career as a pure striker in gremio, for the brazil NT 00/01 and the brasilian u-17 team
.
Dinho didn't have the quality scoring instinct of neymar but had an eye for a pass instead, hence it seemed like he wasn't a forward.
I often saw dinho loose balls too doing a move but it would get over looked because he would get another opportunity to pull it off (u can just re watch some full clips).. But in barca, u have neymar doing a lambreta and xavi, pique etc openly critisizing him just cause they can, because many of them have gained huge reputations over time, something that wasn't there during the time of dinho hence making it difficult to stamp your style of play on the team.
If u want to see neymars full capacity, put him in milan or inter and watch the movie unfold..similar to dinho in the dark ages of barca only this time with a freak who'd still score an insane amount of goals.
That said yes, dinho remains one of the best players ever!!!

@titto. Wonderful post as usual. Although it seems people forget that neymar was a professional player before he came to barca, lol.
Speaking of individual drivers, That guy (neymar) basically took santos from obscurity to their most successful era since pele. He is the top scorer in the history of santos post pele era. In just 4 years with them, he basically sealed his status in santos all time forward line partnering pele in 2013, He won them the libertadores, copa sudamericana, brazilian cup, 3 state championships, world club cup runner up, whilst being official best player and top scorer in all of them. If neymar didn't have so many national commitments (confed cup, olympics) santos would probably walk the league too. A testament to this was when neymar was voted best player of the league twice by coaches and players while only playing half the matches.

Maybe forward and midfielder wasn't a good analogy. Neymar is a goalscorer and dinho was more of a creator.

Bankz wrote:While we're also at it, hope we know that Neymar annihilates dinho for the national team?
Neymar @23 - 67 games - 46 goals - 28 assists.
Dinho @35 - 98+ games - 33 goals - 16 assists.
12 years younger, 31 games less, 13 goals more, 12 assists more.
These were dinhos team mates in 02 - 04
Wc ronaldo, wc rivaldo, wc carlos, wc cafu, wc lucho.
These were dinhos team mates from 05 - 08
Prime adriano, prime kaka, prime robinho, prime fabiano.
Now, these are/were neymar team mates from
11 to date
lord Fred,  willian, firminho, king oscar, gustavo, pato, fernandinho, calamity luiz, hulk...LooooL!!!

Meaningless statistics. Neymar scored more goals than Cruyff did while needing 79 less games. Which means squat doodle doo.

Ronaldinho was a better dribbler, passer, playmaker and ball retainer. Neymar won't pass like this in a million years while he's got Gattuso harrassing him:



Neymar is nowhere near this level:



Neymar's also a lucky mofo regarding his NT pedrigree. Got luckily injured before the Germany game so no one could criticize him, in fact it was painted as Brazil losing like that because Neymar got injured. In reality we all know Neymar would have changed squat in that 7 goal fest. Then got himself suspended early in the Copa America and let his team down. Everything else is meaningless statpadding in friendlies. How people can put Neymar's NT career above Dinho's is beyond me. You know, Dinho actually did win a WC and was a crucial part of the "3 Rs".

futbol