I disagree that Ronaldo makes decisions that hurt the team. Last season he scored 23 goals and had 20 assists. These are remarkable stats, and noticing when he mispasses or doesn’t pass at all is discrediting him. Not to forget that he probably had the second last foot on as many goals as he had direct assists. His attacking abilities are extraordinary, and it’s all pure talent. You cannot achieve those stats without pure talent, and claiming that he’s had to work harder than the ever so naturally gifted Messi and that his moves are more mechanical as a result of this hard work is rediculous to me. And it’s also coming from people praying on a player simply to appear more knowledgable about the game than people watching Ronaldo on a day to day basis on the training ground (SAF and his staff).

Ronaldo is the most direct player in the world today. Everything he does is designed to be a threat. Add to that the fact that he’s involved in so many game deciding situations because of his power, speed and movement. This leaves a player that, if he didn’t make any mistakes or badly timed passes, would be superhuman. And even if decisions that hurt the team would take away from a players status as a truly great, then where would that leave Zidane who on numerous occasions were send off for losing his temper? Every player – even the greats – has had flaws.

No question Ronaldo has worked really really hard on his game in quite a few years now, but no top player has never had to work hard, and you can’t break difference in style down to more or less naturally gifted.

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I can’t believe I’m getting sucked into a debate regarding 2 of my favourite players?
Imo, both Messi and Ronaldo are gifted, and work very hard. (This about talent and hard work is bullshit. Cantona was talented, but even he admitted to having to practice much). both are very good and both have the ability to become legends.
I feel the bigest difference between them is as Grognard put it:
“…but he [Ronaldo] still makes selfish decisions that hurt his team”
Ronaldo does know when to play the perfect pass. He just tend to become a bit too selfish most of the time. In all fairness to him, it is what he is commisioned to do by SAF. He has a responsibility to score in this team. For this reason, he can be forgiven for acting selfish, like a striker.

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