Ronaldo did not appear in GOAL50 for the first time, so now is it accurate to say that CR7 is out of date?
Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi – Luis Figo once said that choosing between them is like choosing between truffle and salmon. For the former Portugal captain, it’s just a question of taste.
Do people like the perfect figure of Ronaldo, a relentless scoring machine who looks like he was built in a laboratory but is in fact a living testament to the achievements of human endeavor? ?
Or is Messi, a small, fairy-like figure in an old story, gifted with a genius talent that not only helps him play the game beautifully but also control it, from which every time he steps on the field, achievements are achieved. Incredible seems not only possible – but very likely?
This is a debate that has divided many football fans for nearly two decades. But is an era ending? Is Ronaldo’s time at the top coming to an end?
Ronaldo is no longer in grace
On Tuesday, Messi was announced as the winner of the 2023 GOAL50 poll. It was the Argentine star’s seventh consecutive win, extending his record – and this comes as no surprise given his recent wins. The feat he scored at last season’s World Cup in Qatar was full of heroism and history.
However, what is shocking is the fact that Ronaldo was not even nominated. After finishing 11th last year, the five-time winner failed to make the long list for 2023, highlighting the decline in his standing over the past 12 months.
So, is Ronaldo finished yet? Will we still see him competing for the big trophies and football’s most prestigious awards? Or could 2024 witness a special resurgence of Ronaldo?
From invulnerable to broken
It’s clear that Ronaldo’s 2022-23 season is as disastrous as Messi’s great campaign, a promotional disaster that has left his reputation in disrepute.
After ruining his legacy at Manchester by forcing his way out of Old Trafford in the most undignified of circumstances (an interview with Piers Morgan), the striker is determined to silence his critics at the World Cup .
Just before Portugal’s opening match, he said that while his enemies were ready and gunning to shoot at him, he felt “invulnerable”. But he looked shattered at the end of that disastrous campaign, in which he was dropped in favor of Goncalo Ramos after each painfully innocuous performance.
After the shocking loss in the round of 16 against Morocco, Ronaldo did not even stop to thank his country’s fans. Instead, he went directly to the dugout, clearly upset at the realization that his last possible appearance at the World Cup had ended in humiliation.
No longer attractive to European giants
Ronaldo’s appalling performances and touchline tantrums in Qatar have done nothing to boost his hopes of securing a move to one of Europe’s top clubs.
The working relationship with Jorge Mendes soured at that time, as the incident with Morgan proved that the extremely unwise interview was the last straw for the super agent, who was allegedly called the interview “a huge mistake”. The tension between the two has increased due to Mendes’s unquestionable ability to bring Ronaldo to a top team in the summer of 2022.
Asking for player salaries that are too high is clearly a big barrier. Most European teams feel that the events of the past six months have proven that Ronaldo is now more of a nuisance than he is worth.
In the end, he was forced to leave Europe and accept the huge amount of money offered by Saudi Arabia to become the new model of the Saudi Professional Football Championship.
Saudi Arabia has the ‘Ronaldo Effect’
It’s easy to understand why Saudi Arabia is willing to invest a large amount of money in Ronaldo. The Portuguese star’s power may be waning on the field, but the CR7 brand is still as strong as ever.
The incredible benefits of the ‘Ronaldo Effect’ have been evident over the past year, as his move to the Middle East has inspired many other famous footballers to follow suit. As Neymar recently said, “Cristiano Ronaldo started all of this”.
Of course, Ronaldo remains obsessed with winning trophies and, with that long the measure of his success, his first six months in Saudi Arabia cannot be considered anything other than a failure. from a sports perspective.
Remember, Al-Nassr was leading the SPL table when he joined in January; they eventually finished second behind Al-Ittihad. Another runner-up finish could well be the best they can hope for this season, as Al-Hilal are currently far ahead of their opponents in the rankings.
