Throughout the past several seasons it's been clear, although there are many great players around the world, it seems that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have established a standard that no other player can emulate in the top flight.
Both were hailed as players of the future when they broke out on to the international scene. One has spent his career at one club, a type of loyalty that is rare in today's game whereas the other's journey has seen him come from Portugal and go to England where he was transformed and then finally make it to his childhood dream in Spain. Now comparing these 2 individuals wouldn't do justice to either of them and I'm sure there are plenty of articles available that attempt to do so. Instead of comparing them to one another, we should compare the two to the rest of the professional top flight and it is there where we begin to see an obvious pattern.
If Messi and Ronaldo are the 2 best players in the world, then who is the 3rd or better yet how large is the gap between these 2 and everyone else? The Castrol Rankings posted above is a good measure of efficiency and shows that under their system FC Porto's Hulk would be the 3rd most efficient player this season. Although I've watched Hulk play over the past few years and can tell you that he is indeed a force to reckoned with, I doubt he'll place 3rd on FIFA's list only because he plays in Portugal. We'll most likely see either Iniesta or Xavi there and they definitely more than deserve to be there as they are a class above in their own right. However, there really aren't any other players in the top-flight today that can single-handily dominate and win a match for their club.
This season both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo posted incredible offensive marks. Lionel Messi scored 31 times and assisted 19 times in La Liga while Cristiano Ronaldo scored 40 times and assisted 11 times. Furthermore, their form continued in other competitions where Ronaldo scored 7 and 6 in the Copa Del Rey and UEFA Champions League while providing 5 assists total between both of them. Lionel Messi was just as impressive as he converted 7 and 12 goals in the Copa Del Rey and UEFA Champions League while also posting 6 assists total between both of them. Remarkably, when you total up their goal tally's, they both finished the year on 53 goals in all competitions, while Messi held a slight advantage in assists nabbing 24 to Ronaldo's 16. Lionel Messi took the spoils as his club won both La Liga and the UEFA Champions League whilst Ronaldo's side was only able to capture the Copa Del Rey.
My bet is that by the end of the year, Messi will once again be crowned the FIFA Balon d'Or winner while Ronaldo will finish 2nd. Ronaldo had missed out on breaking the top 3 last year as Messi went away with the award and his 2 Barcelona teammates, Xavi and Iniesta, rounded up the top 3. However, with these 2 posting such incredible offensive statistics, we're truly seeing how special they are although some would like to point towards the decline in quality amongst the rest of La Liga contributing to their inflated numbers. Perhaps it's a combination of both, these 2 have been the talk of the sport since breaking out into the big stage.
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| Messi wins his first in 2009 as Ronaldo finishes 2nd. |
Perhaps La Liga is in decline, but there are still plenty of stars in the league. Atletico Madrid's highly-touted Sergio "Kun" Aguero is one of them but he hasn't come close to matching the performances of these 2. How about elsewhere in England or Italy? In England, we really haven't seem anyone stand out and dominate. Carlos Tevez had a stellar season, but didn't play nearly as much as these 2 and has been more concerned with quitting. In Italy, I was impressed with the resiliency of Samuel Eto'o and he produced quite fine for Inter, but again was still not up to the grade of these 2. What's amazing between Messi and Ronaldo is not only the sheer number they scored or assisted but also how they did it.
Messi and Ronaldo played a total of 55 and 54 games in all competitions this season and both scored 53 goals. Basically, they both scored as much as nearly all the matches they've played this season. The season before it was much more of the same with Messi hitting 47 goals in 53 matches while Ronaldo played significantly fewer matches but still posted 33 goals in 35 matches. There are fans that have said these 2 are choke artists that fail to live up to their hype, but if anything what we've discussed here proves entirely otherwise. Messi and Ronaldo are not only the 2 most dominate players in the world, but they are also the 2 most consistent players in the world.
Both players have 2 contrasting styles of play. There are some who prefer Messi over Ronaldo and vice-versa, but if we just step aside from our club or national preferences and just look at what these 2 have done over the coarse of their young careers, I think it's fair to say that they are easily genius' in their own. Whether you dislike one or the other for any particular reason, there is no doubting their ability to produce and produce at a much higher level than anyone else. Maybe one day we'll talking to our grandchildren about these 2 like our elders had once talked about Pele, Maradona and Cruyff.
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solid article, really puts into perspective how there aren't any players in their caliber.
ReplyDeleteThis report about goals/minute being used to find the best player is biased simply because defenders or even defensive midfielders don't score goals. So how do you include that in your analysis. We can argue that players like Vidic, Lucio, etc. deserve to be regarded as some of the best players in the world and definitely in the top 5 or top 10. But this kind of report will never count them there in that. How about if you made up a chart of goals conceded per minutes and then see which defenders are good players also.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the person above me; however, I understand that you're basing your analysis off data and statistics provided to you by the footballing institutions making it a bit difficult to factor in defenders; however, I'll defend the author of this article simply by saying that if his analysis is biased then so are the awards given out for FIFA Balon d'or who obviously lean much more towards offensive players.
ReplyDeleteNice article however I believe there is one player who, though he gets injured unbaringly often, truly can perform at the level of these two giants of the game.
ReplyDeleteArjen Robben is such a spectacular force being able to as you said completely carry the weight of his team on his shoulders.
As soon as the man returned from injury halfway through Bayern's dreadful season where they sat as low as 6th place. He almost single-handedly turned the season around scoring a whopping 12 goals in only 14 games (one in which he came off early injured) along with a masterful 8 assists.
These numbers truly put Robben in the realm of CR7 and Messi but what's more incredible is how he threw his dominance on the table for people to see in Bayern's UCL run in 09/10 in which Robben literally scored every goal Bayern needed to advance to the next round of the knockout stage. I just thought I'd thrrow that out there (: