Cristiano Ronaldo » UEFA Champions’ League

The Ballon d’Or: Ronaldo or Messi?

Ale — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:48:13 +0000

Thierry Henry’s verbal fellating of Lionel Messi got me thinking… does Ronaldo really deserve the Ballon d’Or this year? I figured he had it locked down, but I decided to check out some numbers:

Ronaldo GP G A
07/08 46 42 9
08/09 28 16 19

His 86 points scored over 74 games equals 1.16 points per game.

Messi GP G A
07/08 33 16 26
08/09 15 12 27

His 81 points scored over 48 games equals 1.69 points per game.

Just for fun let’s throw Torres in there…

Torres GP G A
07/08 41 30 4
08/09 22 9 9

His 52 points scored over 63 games equals 0.81 points per game.

Now let’s look at some positives and negatives for each player:

Ronaldo
+ Scored 42 goals last season.
+ Won the Champion’s League.
+ Won almost every other award you can think of last year.
+ Manchester United finished first in the Premier League in 07/08.
- Manchester United is in danger of falling out of title contention in 08/09.
- Disappeared at Euro 2008.
- Not a great personal start to the 08/09 season.

Messi
+ Scores a half a point per game more than Ronaldo.
+ Great “team” player.
+ Won gold at the 2008 Olympics.
+ Barcelona is in first place in La Liga in 08/09.
- Barcelona finished third in La Liga in 07/08.
- Barcelona lost to Manchester United in the Champion’s League semi-finals.
- No hardware last year.

Torres
+ Instantly made an impact in the Premier League.
+ All 30 of his goals in 07/08 were scored during open play.
+ Won Euro 2008 with Spain, scored deciding goal in the final.
+ Liverpool is tied for first place in the Premier League in 08/09.
- Liverpool finished fourth last season.
- Liverpool lost to Chelsea in the Champion’s League semi-finals.
- No hardware last year.

So after thinking about each player’s accomplishments last season, I realized that all three of them won a competition involving multiple countries, and each of them also stood out in separate ways individually. Ronaldo had an incredible goal haul, Messi surely assisted every goal scored for Barcelona that was not scored BY him, and Torres outdid everyone’s expectations for his first year during the run of play alone.

Back to the point of this post… who do YOU think deserves it the most?

Ronaldo Wins Again, Ignores Sir Alex

Ale — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:07:58 +0000

Ronaldo picked up a few more awards to add to his insane trophy haul from last season by being named both the European Club Player of the Year, as well as European Club Forward of the Year in Monaco earlier today.

“I think Manchester had a great season and I scored many goals.

“To win this award is great for me, I feel very proud, very good, to win this, because the Champions League is one of the best. Every player likes to play this competition and to be the best.”

“I feel very proud because my position is winger and to win the best forward is good for me, it gives me ambition to work good and better. Thank you everyone who voted for me, thank you to my team-mates, and good night.”

In case anyone didn’t hear his big ‘fuck you’ to Sir Alex the first time, he made sure to thank everyone-else-in-the-room-except-his-manager-who-was-sitting-directly-in-front-of-him again:

“For me, is great, thank you everyone, thank you my team-mates, thank you to everyone, to all the players, ~~prostitutes~~, it’s great, it’s good for me, I feel very happy.”

Still a little bitter about not getting his ‘dream’ move to Madrid maybe?

Also, Petr Cech, John Terry, And Frank Lampard got some nice consolation prizes to put next to their loser’s medals by winning European Club Goalkeeper, Defender, and Midfielder of the Year respectively.

New CL Threads

Ale — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:52:19 +0000

Ronaldo and ~~Franck Ribéry~~ Gary Neville model United’s new Champion’s League away kit, which commemorates the 40th anniversary of their (and English football’s) first European Cup victory when they beat Portugal’s Benfica 4-1 in extra time.

Ronaldo:

“The new kit is beautiful. I like all the United kits – but the home kit is my favourite because we won the Premier League and Champions League in it, so it was lucky. But it’s great to put a shirt on that remembers a great team.”

~~Ribéry~~ Neville:

“I like the traditional kits. We should wear kits that represent the history of the club and this one certainly does that.

You’ll think about that night and that team when you wear this, particularly with the date embroidered around the badge.

And the fans will love it as well”

Top 5 Free Kicks 2007/2008

Ale — Sun, 25 May 2008 22:50:12 +0000

You Don’t Say No To Real Madrid

Ale — Thu, 22 May 2008 12:41:49 +0000

Immediatly following his Champions’ League final victory with United, The Best Player in the World added some more fuel to the fire that is the Real Madrid transfer saga.

“I don’t promise nothing, I don’t promise nothing to my mum, I don’t promise nothing to the supporters,” he said. “I want to stay, but the future … no one knows. I want to stay. We are going to see in the next two weeks, I don’t say I make a decision.“

The Spanish media is eating all of this up of course, with Marca running the headline “I say ‘yes I do,’ Manchester United says ‘no you don’t'” over a picture of Ronaldo.

Just to put his 2 cents in, Ramon Calderon told Punto Radio “Players play where they want. If a player decides to leave, he can’t be stopped. Slavery was abolished some time ago.”

Personally I’d love to see him play in Spain (Hala Madrid), and his constant dodging of the question makes me think he’ll leave Old Trafford more and more every day. Plus, we’d all get to see alot more of Red Jesus vs The Messiah.

How do you think all of this this will play out? Will he want to continue his success with United or go abroad in search of a new challenge?

Cristiano Ronaldo > Everyone

Ale — Sun, 18 May 2008 20:44:43 +0000

“I scored two times against Arsenal, I scored against Liverpool. I score against every team in England. I am very happy with my season. I scored 31 League goals. I don’t need to show anything to anyone. I win every award. I need to prove nothing.”

So sayeth Red Jesus.

It must be getting a little hard for the haters to hate given everything he’s accomplished this season…

- 2nd consecutive Premier League title
- 2nd consecutive PFA Players’ Player of the Year
- 2nd consecutive PFA Fans’ Player of the Year
- 3rd consecutive PFA Premier League Team of the Year
- 2nd consecutive Barclay’s Player of the Year
- 2nd consecutive Football Writer’s Association Player of the Year
- Barclay’s Golden Boot
- Barclay’s Merit Award
- European Golden Boot

Throw in all the Manchester United accolades and the possibility of Champions’ League and Euro victories (can you say Ballon d’Or?) and I’d say it’s been a pretty good season.

Speaking of Wednesday, Chelsea’s Ricardo Carvalho had the following words of wisdom:

“We have to try to not give him too much space. It is difficult to stop him but if you focus and work with your team-mate, it will be easy.“

REALLY!?

Somewhere Avram Grant is looking more sullen then usual thanks to Carvalho giving up Chelsea’s big strategy before the game but whatever. I’m surprised no one else tried this tactic this year.

More later.
Ciao.