By David Amoruso and Matt HayesThe New York TimesOn Monday, ESPN senior writer David Amorosos wrote that Cristiano had won the Champions League with Real Madrid in 2015 and is “the best player in the world right now.”
The column made reference to Ronaldo’s rise from a mediocre player to one of the world’s best.
The ESPN article was accompanied by an article titled “The most underrated player in world football,” which also referenced Ronaldo’s record.
The piece, however, didn’t go so far as to criticize Ronaldo’s form.
In fact, the article made clear that it was Ronaldo’s consistency that had made him a superstar.
For example, Ronaldo scored 21 goals last season in 30 league matches and had a goal and an assist in each of the other five matches, as well.
ESPN also mentioned that Ronaldo had scored more goals in the Champions Leagues than any other player in history, despite the fact that he was only 21 years old.
As far as the record goes, ESPN also mentioned Ronaldo’s goals against average was at a career-high of 1.54 per game.
However, the column was not quite as positive as the Times article, in that it didn’t mention that Ronaldo’s goal-scoring rate in the first half of last season was actually below his career average.
The ESPN column also did not make any mention of Ronaldo’s defensive contributions, which he is undoubtedly a key part of.
Even though the Madrid team has played well for the past few seasons, the team still conceded a league-high 39 goals last year.
Ronaldo’s contribution was a bit higher in the second half of the season, when his defense played better.
For example in the season finale against Barcelona, Ronaldo had a block on a Messi cross that led to an own goal for the Portuguese superstar.
Ronaldo also had two assists and two penalty kicks that led the way in the game.
The Times piece also mentioned a statistic called the coefficient of competition, which is calculated by looking at the total number of goals scored by a team and also by looking to determine the contribution of a player to the team’s performance.
This statistic measures the percentage of goals a team scores against a rival team that is a direct result of a team’s play.
While the coefficient does not account for individual skill, it can provide a good insight into the individual contributions of players.
According to ESPN, Ronaldo has scored a whopping 1,921 goals in his career, while Messi has scored 1,981.
It is worth noting that the average goals scored per season by any player is 1.51, which means that Ronaldo has averaged more goals than Messi in every season of his career.
That is not to say Ronaldo’s performance is a perfect fit for Messi, however.
The article also noted that Ronaldo played the full 90 minutes of the UEFA Champions League final against Real Madrid last season, which made it clear that he played a vital role in the team winning the game against Barcelona.
On top of that, Ronaldo’s assist against Barcelona in the last-16 match in the 2014 Champions League was the biggest assist in history.
While Messi and Ronaldo have a lot of similarities, they also have some significant differences, which ESPN didn’t discuss in the article.
For one, Messi is arguably one of world soccer’s greatest talents.
Ronaldo, however of course, is a different kind of player.
Ronaldo, for example, is not a true striker, but rather an excellent passer of the ball.
Furthermore, Messi can only play at a very high level when the team has the ball, while Ronaldo can create chances for himself and score goals.ESPN did not comment on whether Ronaldo’s contributions are more valuable than Messi’s.
However, it is clear that the best players in the modern world are also the best on the field.
