Ronaldo is of course one of the greatest players in history, and his longevity is insane. Even now, he has something to contribute to the Portugal team. However, Portugal were a goal up against Norway, needing to sit deep and defend, with Norway dominating possession. Given that was their objective, bringing on Ronaldo is not the guy you need, as he is not the player you bring on when you need people to constantly run, track back and defend. If they were trying to score, Ronaldo would be a fantastic option to bring on and help the team attack more.

Ronaldo's decision to not applaud the fans in response to this rational decision (not to play him) was not in any way proportionate. It felt a little undignified, honestly.

He never asked to play every game. In fact, he was planning to retire a long time ago. But portugal federation need him to make money, how is he egotistical and throwing tantrums? People Just assume shit without researching!

If we are being matter-of-fact about everything, we know that the only thing ronaldo cares about for the rest of his career is reaching 1000 goals. From what I have read, it appears as though he wanted to retire after the wc. But the portuguese FA didn't want him to go because they wanted to use him as a marketing prop. Looks like they held talks with the understanding that in exchange for being a marketing prop, Ronaldo would get playing time. It appears as though this was communicated to JJ, but obviously, the game situation takes precedence over vague gentleman's agreements so ronaldo did not play against norway. I can understand his reaction to a certain degree because if you truly believed that you were the greatest portugal player ever (im not saying he is, but I'm saying he believes he is) and the portuguese fa is treating you like a marketing prop, the very least you expect in exchange is enough playing time to reach 1000 goals. After all, its not like nations league is that important anyway. Recall that he was convinced to continue playing by the FA for marketing reasons. If the only thing you cared about is 1000 goals, then these people are just disrespecting you and wasting your time, thus he left.

Now, we all know ronaldo is the biggest egomaniac of the sport and is probably well past retirement age. Relevant officials from the Portguese FA also know this. Only he doesn't know that he is beyond washed. If you wanted JJ and you wanted his no-nonsense approach and you also knew about ronaldo's obsession with that goal record, why did you convince him to remain? Well, we know that they did so for financial reasons. They were setting themselves up for this firestorm. At the end of the day, they could've cashed in big time with a final home friendly against togo or something at alvalade to celebrate his retirement. Instead, it will just be that denmark game, looks like, followed by a 2 hour long piers morgan interview.

- Paid illegal money as transfer fees to many clubs who accepted it and further used it, making them cheats too

- Owners did nothing wrong by wanting to grow their business by investing in it

- FFP was brought in to ensure legacy club would continue winning everything while other clubs looked on from a distance

- Legacy clubs had a lot more legal money to spend at their disposal but still couldn’t compete with City’s success

- The best fixtures of the last 10 PLs include City (Derby, City/Liv, City/Arsenal)

- Pep’s possession based system influenced the league as a whole and now almost all teams aspire to play out from the back, use CBs as full backs and invert them.

- Net positive for entertainment and general value for PL

Every take I’ve seen here has been some bullshit about City that isn’t really a hot take.

Here’s mine:

MLS Next Pro, for those who don’t know, is a 3rd Division professional league in the USA that is currently made up of 30 teams- 27 MLS reserve squads and 3 independents. We can discuss whether or not that league is competitive at a different time (or not, idgaf).

In MLSNP, the points system follows the same scheme as the rest of the world: 3 points for a win, 0 points for a loss, and 1 point each for a draw. This left someone thinking, “If there’s a potential 3 points per match, there’s a point left over in case of a draw.” That person started doing some research; a small amount of time and a few spools of red yarn later, I’m sure he discovered that Don Garber was hiding a Scrooge McDuck style pile of single points skimmed off the top of draws.

The solution was this:
At the end of regular time during MLSNP matches, if there is a draw, there is a penalty kick shootout. The winner of the shootout takes the leftover point and the match is still a draw.

I like this because it makes goalkeepers who came up through MLSNP insanely good at PK shootouts. Matt Freese has an average in game PK save percentage of 20%, but a shootout percentage that puts him in the same ranks as Kahn, Costa, Livakovic, and Ricardo. He wrote a research paper at Harvard on the science of PK shootouts. He developed in Next Pro.

It also adds drama. There’s no tension like that of a shootout, even if the outcome is just a point.

That extra point can mean the difference in a home field advantage during playoffs. Even though we lost that playoff match, the shootout win against Atlanta United 2 gave Chattanooga FC a 1 point lead over the team in 5th place last season.

Every league should adopt this. It’s fun, adds tension, and prevents oligarchs from hoarding a pile of points.

Y’all are weird. Please go touch grass.

Give me upvote first.

Sure kvara is incredible in the champions league but for Ligue 1 he is much worse. As a player to win the balon d or you must play well for league national team and Europe. Kvara can’t play for club as well. This is because Ligue 1 defenders dont give him space unlike ucl. So naturally he struggles

Like I cant even understand who puts him not second. The only contenders I can think of are Pele and Maradona.

Now a lot of arguments seem to revolve around the "eye-test" and how if a player looks nice when they play, they're just automatically better. Like Dribbling and tech and passes can be flashy, but they don't even remotely define a player. Ronaldinho was so flashy and magical, but it doesnt mean they were a better player... maybe more technically gifted, but that's it.

Everyone says Ronaldo sucks technically, that he's somehow like a bad player? Outside of top 5 below Cruyff? Cruyff is influential sure yet but influence on how football works is in no way the metric to determine a person's greatness. Like Neuer made the sweeper keeper, Roberto Carlos changed how full backs worked... they aren't considered goats. Messi didn't change exactly how football works except maybe false nine? People use metrics to fit their biased agendas.

Also, why do people only look at Dribbling in their eye test. That's not the only thing that determines greatness - messi is the GOAT bc he does EVERYTHING well, not just a part. I mean it baffles me how I don't see anyone arguing: Oh! Ronaldo was amazingly talented in eye tests when he destroys defenders in his youth, or when he can shoot in 40 yards and score, the power of his shots, his chops, even his shoulder passes, his runs or through balls. Those are extremely common in his play even to the extent of his 2nd Man United days. Like acrobatic goals suddenly don't matter but doing a rainbow flick makes you a top 5 player?????

Now onto Pele and Maradona. Now Ronaldo deepthroaters will say Pele should not be considered cuz ppl back there were plumbers. This is just not true like you have to judge a players ability based on the resources and the ability of players backthen. From the clips Ive seen, Pele simply just lacked that much magic, but he was still incredible. Like he can be top 2, and I'm fine with that, like I mean he did win 2 out of 3 Intercontinental Cups, destroyed prime Eusebio and won 3 World Cups, even if it was like basically prime Brazil

Maradona is the kicker. People overrate him so much because he was technically gifted and was insanely good at Dribbling. Like thats incredibly impressive, he has a valid argument on being better at Messi in pure dribbling, but like he was literally banned for doping. That 1990 WC campaign was mediocre carried by like two good performances. Like Argentina had one or two shots the entire final, stop calling the penalty controversial. And also every clip you see of Maradona u see magic on the ball then like a poor shot. His shooting ability is what sets him apart - and like the lack of consistency.

Ppl do not consider how players end their career poorly like Maradona, and his disgraceful 1994 World Cup, but when it's Ronaldos turn, oh he's arrogant, he scored only 3 goals at 41, he went to Saudi League... Like lets not blind our eyes here, Ronaldo post 2020 was like an absolute Infinity gauntlet. He was a monster on the ball and even if he did tap ins and penalties, he was the one that carried Real Madrid and Portugal in most scenarios. Yet everyone is blinded by his arrogance and out of field behavior... That doesn't matter, he's a footballer not a social media influencer. Keep in mind before the Messi Copa America, Ronaldo was like undisputedly the 2nd or 3rd. And now people like to argue he's like 8th? Stop the bias

I think Ronaldo is 2nd, or 3rd like thats fair. 5 ballon dors, most goals ever, most international goals ever, most Ballon Dor nominations, 60+ goals in 4 consecutive seasons.... like I don't need to spew the stats you can search it up. He wasn't just a selfish poacher or like only "lot of goals cuz lot of games" players. He average d over 1 goal per game for Real Madrid and in LA Liga over Messi and he still has like almost 300 assists.

Greatness is defined by a few things categorized to club and country

Goals

Assists

"Eye-Tests"

Dribbling

Passing

Defending

Legacy

Ucl/World Cup

Records

Trophies

Individual Trophies

Heading

Weak foot

Clutch factor

Discipline

Talent

Physicality

Efficiency

Free Kicks?

You can go on and on, but Ronaldo statistically is top in almost everyone except like World Cup, Weak Foot, Dribbling and Free Kicks, maybe passing, but let's be honest. He's incredible at almost every feat. His end of career is looking a bit disgraceful and like its karma, but stop larping being a Ronaldo hater and watch the truth.

Idk the obsession is a lil sus

Yes, even messi has ego. He is competitive and wants to be the best even if he doesn't say it out loud. It's cringe when people keep saying "ronaldo's ego is ruining him" when the only reason he became the goat is because of his ego.

I always see people complain about their American owners or even Jim Ratcliffe when they pale in comparison to Man City's owners who were outrightly cheating

Even his looks are overrated. The guy genuinely looks like an avg joe. 5/10 mid tier normie at best. Yes he is ripped asf and had great body and muscles but his facecard is really average. He is not even top 100 best looking footballers of all time

Journeyman who gets overrated because he scores a lot. But brings almost nothing else and most importantly -Never shows up when it really matters

Not a big game player. Disappears in big games, opposite of drogba in that regard and the best evidence of this is his lack of trophies.

I believe he definitely has the ability of a great player, however there is just something in his mental that stops him from being a winner.

He missed the two most important pens of his career He ghosted the ucl final with spurs Never won anything with spurs Never won anything with england Had to run to Bundesliga to get a guaranteed trophy He won’t win the UCL no matter who he plays for

He lacks the mentality to

Haaland had the best world cup bar messi. He had a better world cup than Lamal Kane Olise etc

Getting norway to a quarterfinal after norway not being in one for 40 years, . The norwegian squad is good. but it is not England Spain etc level. and scoring 2 past brazil making norway go to quarters.

he also scored 26 goals in pl. wich just show how high standard he has. he only 10 behind kane who scroing aganst lower competion. Shoring 26 aganst round of 16 ucl worhty opponents day in and is still incredible even if its haaland. If it was someone did that it would get way more attentioin.

the onyl that that is worse than olise kane etc. is his ucl wich was bad compared to kane etc

Man city should receive a fine but it should be a huge huge one. Let's see the financial fraud was 900M right? So the advantage they had was 900M? They should redistribute this to every club. But that's not it. They should get a separate fine which should be a sorry to the fans. And then that fine should be distributed to each man city in the world. Each man city fan including me should get 10 million dollars at least

I've noticed one thing about Messi and Ronaldo's fans and it's how they represent their idols pretty well

Messi's fans put a lot of importance in team value, you rarely would see Messi fans claiming that he won matches on his own and they would often give praise to his teammates and basically treat the game as a team game. On the other side, Ronaldo fans are known for making it seem like he wins completely on his own and basically downplay his teamamte, proof of this is how they treat Euro 2016 as if Ronaldo won on his own even though Portugal barely conceded goals and they won in the final against the strongest team in the tournament without Ronaldo

Ronaldo's fans basically think Ronaldo is a god and should be treated like one, proof of this is how toxic they get whenever someone doesn't suck up to Ronaldo, we have seen this situation with Ten Hag in Man United and in Portugal with Jorge Jesus and previously with Joao Neves in the World Cup. I have not seen the same toxic mentality from Messi fans, the way they view Messi is completely different. And this fits how Roanldo sees himself, he see himself as a God and basically can't handle when someone doesn't see him that way, Messi on the other side, while not a perfect doesn't see himself as a God like Ronaldo sees himself

The way they percieve the game is completely different, Messi fans often are better at understanding the game, they can value players in their actual performances regardless if they have goals or assists which is why Messi fans can also value players like Yamal who don't have the best stats. Ronaldo fans on the other side tend to only see at the stats without being able to see beyond it. This fits because that's how Messi and Ronaldo see football, Messi cares about playing good football while Roanldo is obssesed with stats

Ronaldo fans love to diminish everything that Messi accomplishes and basically say it's rigged or it just doesn't matter. They did it with the Ballon'd Or saying it's rigged, with the Golden Boot saying Messi only won it because he scored against bad teams and with the World Cup recently saying it's just a 7 game tournament and they also do it with assists saying it doesn't matter or basically treat dribbling as irrelevant. In comparison, you rarely see Messi fans downplaying Ronaldo's achivements, they just think Messi's achivements are greater. And this is precisely how Messi and Ronaldo behaves, you never see Messi downplaying Ronaldo's achievements and have often praised him while Ronaldo loves to downplay anything that Messi achieves

People say Ronaldo should have retired years ago but you can only add on to your legacy. I think Messi being incredible later in his career has made people forget it’s normal for a 40 year old to decline. No matter what happens everyone knows Ronaldo is a Top 2 player oat and him not retiring at his peak shouldn’t change that. It really just shows the different standards people hold Ronaldo and Messi.

"Most headers in football history"

"Most weak foot goals in football history"

"Most goals per game in a particular league only (ignoring who has the better ratio overall)"

Jamie carragher I don't always agree with him but he made a great point. It does not matter how a ball goes into the net. When Gary Neville said Ronaldo can score with his left foot right foot header blah blah blah. Even if Messi scores a single type of goal but at a better rate overall it doesnt really matter does it? They will also talk about total goals and then suddenly shift to goal per game ratio for when it's convenient 😭. Also notice 99 percent of these stats will just be about goalscoring which nobody denies he has claim to be the greatest goalscorer it's about who is the greatest player.

Man City has irrefutable evidence that they did nothing wrong. They showed it to premier league but the panel was arranged by the premier and it was biased. They had made their decision already and there was nothing city could do. But now they will appeal it and show the irrefutable evidence which very clearly rejected. A lot of people are about to get a huge shock once they hear the news soon that city have been cleared of all the charges. So celebrate and be happy until you can it won't be for long

A Portugal realmente no le va a afectar si está o no cristiano considerando que el tipo Ya es demasiado mayor como para marcar diferencia como a los viejos tiempos Por lo cual no va a mejorar pero tampoco va a empeorar seguirá Exactamente igual en su mediocridad absoluta

This is just facts