Cristiano Ronaldo - Much Ado About Al Nassr

Fluctuation0161 said:
Just reality. Weghorst could go and get some good stats in Saudi. It's meaningless.
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Sure it’s an irreverent league and his stats over there is rather less significance, but it’s just counted as 9 goals out of his 828 goals from Europe’s highest level. In comparison Pele scored 64 goals in shite US league out of his 767 goals, and his records has been hailed for half centuary.

Sometimes we just need to have some perspective there don’t we?
 
RedRonaldo said:
Sure it’s an irreverent league and his stats over there is rather less significance, but it’s just counted as 9 goals out of his 828 goals from Europe’s highest level. In comparison Pele scored 64 goals in shite US league out of his 767 goals, and his records has been hailed for half centuary.

Sometimes we just need to have some perspective there don’t we?
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No. Weghorst will do better than Ronaldo in the Saudi league. Thats it.
 
What him being unable to give a straight answer says to me is, ‘I fecked around and found out’.

Ronaldo had to go to the Middle East. Man Utd makes the Middle East come to it.
 
That’s the closest you’ll get to Cristiano Ronaldo expressing regret.
 
I don't know if you guys are being intentionally obtuse, but he's referring to himself here and how he was at the top of the footballing mountain (or at least believed himself to be, justifiably, considering what he has achieved). He struggled to 'see what was below' in the sense that he couldn't relate to/come to terms with no longer being at the top. He didn't want to face that inevitable reality.
 
bringbackbebe said:
Talking about his exit is the only way he's going to stay relevant now
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Club level, maybe. Though his performances in the Saudi league are still generating global attention because of his stature, so maybe not.

International stage? ...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65037274

If / when he plays for Portugal tonight, he becomes the all time record international cap holder in the history of the game. That's pretty relevant. Any goal he scores will extend his lead as all time leading international scorer. That's pretty relevant too.
 
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It’s mad he’s still getting minutes for Portugal, maybe because of the cap record and it’s Liechenstein. But there’s no future in having him around the squad for Euro 2024, so I don’t see the benefit of having that circus around that hurt the team in the World Cup.
 
KeanoMagicHat said:
It’s mad he’s still getting minutes for Portugal, maybe because of the cap record and it’s Liechenstein. But there’s no future in having him around the squad for Euro 2024, so I don’t see the benefit of having that circus around that hurt the team in the World Cup.
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CR7 it's all about records, he give 3 fecks if Portugal it's worse with him on the pitch because his legs are gone, as soon as he keeps scoring everything it's fine.

I mean what's the point of playing against Liechtenstein at 38 years old, other than stat padding for individual records.
 
KeanoMagicHat said:
It’s mad he’s still getting minutes for Portugal, maybe because of the cap record and it’s Liechenstein. But there’s no future in having him around the squad for Euro 2024, so I don’t see the benefit of having that circus around that hurt the team in the World Cup.
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FrankFoot said:
CR7 it's all about records, he give 3 fecks if Portugal it's worse with him on the pitch because his legs are gone, as soon as he keeps scoring everything it's fine.

I mean what's the point of playing against Liechtenstein at 38 years old, other than stat padding for individual records.
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It's not like they've arranged easy home friendlies to help 'stat pad'. It's a qualifying campaign - you play teams from each pot so of course some of those opponents will be easier ones than others. But picking the same players against all levels of those opponents doesn't make it selfish 'stat padding' when they score against the lower ranked ones - unless you make the same accusation against other nations main strikers like Kane, Lewandowski, etc, when they play and score against the minnows.

As for his age meaning he won't have an international 'future' after Euro 2024 so they shouldn't pick him in it, or even for the qualifiers - most top players have a 'final' tournament that they build towards and go to knowing it'll probably be their final major tournament. That's no reason to then decide to actually drop them from the squad 2 years before it because they won't have a 'future' after it. Otherwise their 'final' tournament would actually be the one they'd already played.

The recent world cup being a winter one means there was only 18 months between that and Euro 2024, so it's obviously been decided that the Euros will be his final major tournament instead. Once that's been decided - that Ronaldo is in the plans for Euro 2024 - then of course it makes sense picking him for the games. Otherwise, he actually wouldn't be in the plans. The end of this cycle will be after Euro 2024, when preparations start for the world cup qualifying group, and that's when it'll be strange if he's still in the squad.
 
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Bertie Wooster said:
It's not like they've arranged easy home friendlies to help 'stat pad'. It's a qualifying campaign - you play teams from each pot so of course some of those opponents will be easier ones than others. But picking the same players against all levels of those opponents doesn't make it selfish 'stat padding' when they score against the lower ranked ones - unless you make the same accusation against other nations main strikers like Kane, Lewandowski, etc, when they play and score against the minnows.

As for his age meaning he won't have an international 'future' after Euro 2024 so they shouldn't pick him in it, or even for the qualifiers - most top players have a 'final' tournament that they build towards and go to knowing it'll probably be their final major tournament. That's no reason to then decide to actually drop them from the squad 2 years before it because they won't have a 'future' after it. Otherwise their 'final' tournament would actually be the one they'd already played.

The recent world cup being a winter one means there was only 18 months between that and Euro 2024, so it's obviously been decided that the Euros will be his final major tournament instead. Once that's been decided - that Ronaldo is in the plans for Euro 2024 - then of course it makes sense picking him for the games. Otherwise, he actually wouldn't be in the plans. The end of this cycle will be after Euro 2024, when preparations start for the world cup qualifying group, and that's when it'll be strange if he's still in the squad.
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What if he's not good enough to be part of the squad in 2024?
 
FrankFoot said:
CR7 it's all about records, he give 3 fecks if Portugal it's worse with him on the pitch because his legs are gone, as soon as he keeps scoring everything it's fine.

I mean what's the point of playing against Liechtenstein at 38 years old, other than stat padding for individual records.
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What else is he supposed to do? He technically plays in a league i know, but you get my point.
 
antk said:
What if he's not good enough to be part of the squad in 2024?
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That's a subjective opinion for each to hold. And there's always debates about national call ups and who should or shouldn't be selected.

In this case, the only one that actually matters is the new manager's, Roberto Martinez. And he's decided that Ronaldo will be part of the squad building towards Euro 2024. So I was saying, once that's been decided by the manager, it's valid to pick him in the games otherwise there wouldn't be any point having selected him.

There's others who don't think he should be in any more, and that's fine. But making out it's just selfish stat padding for a player to want to play and score for their international team isn't fine. Otherwise you'd have to label it at every player who has ever played the sport - as everyone wants to play and score for their national team!
 
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2 free kick goals in a week :lol:

Some new record/milestone after this:
- Most international appearance - 197
- First person to score 100 international goal in competitive matches (non-friendly)

Extending his all time record:
- Most international goal - 120
- Most career goal - 830

Personal milestone:
- 60 career free kick goal
- score goals for his country for 20 consecutive years
 
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Goalkeeping was horrendous on those last two free kicks he scored, which is probably the only way he was ever scoring a free kick anyway.
 
Roberto Martinez is his biyatch. That's why he likes Martinez. I'm sure he will always play for the national team no matter the circumstances.
 
Isn't the first goal also his, or do my eyes deceive me? Watched it from four angles and it looks like it hits an opponent and then Ronaldo. He even celebrated as if it was.
 
KeanoMagicHat said:
It’s mad he’s still getting minutes for Portugal, maybe because of the cap record and it’s Liechenstein. But there’s no future in having him around the squad for Euro 2024, so I don’t see the benefit of having that circus around that hurt the team in the World Cup.
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At some stage when he is not scoring/performing he will get dropped for sure. But right now he still does his job doesn’t he? Scoring 2 goals for his team and whoscored gives him rating of 8.5, doesn’t seem he is hurting their Euro qualifying campaign at all for now.

Martinez has been saying his experience would he valuable for the team. My guess is, he would be given min 60-70 mins per game throughout the qualifying campaign. If he delivers sure the coach would have no reason to stop bringing him to the finals, of course by then he would be 39 so it’s going to be his last tournament, in squad rotaton role probably.
 
KeanoMagicHat said:
It’s mad he’s still getting minutes for Portugal, maybe because of the cap record and it’s Liechenstein. But there’s no future in having him around the squad for Euro 2024, so I don’t see the benefit of having that circus around that hurt the team in the World Cup.
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The mighty Lichtenstein eh?

Top of the mountain to skid row
 
Bertie Wooster said:
That's a subjective opinion for each to hold. And there's always debates about national call ups and who should or shouldn't be selected.

In this case, the only one that actually matters is the new manager's, Roberto Martinez. And he's decided that Ronaldo will be part of the squad building towards Euro 2024. So I was saying, once that's been decided by the manager, it's valid to pick him in the games otherwise there wouldn't be any point having selected him.

There's others who don't think he should be in any more, and that's fine. But making out it's just selfish stat padding for a player to want to play and score for their international team isn't fine. Otherwise you'd have to label it at every player who has ever played the sport - as everyone wants to play and score for their national team!
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There’s a reason why he broke the cap record too, it’s also because he doesn’t have the self awareness to go ‘hey, maybe it’s time to give the young players a shot’. He is such a massive figure in the game that his presence overwhelms teams and managers and it all circles around his orbit. That was fine when he was one of the best players in the world, but he’s nowhere near that.

He’s the Portugal equivalent of a good guest at a party but has stayed to 2am and won’t leave, everybody else is gone and the hosts are too polite to say anything.
 
Great to see him play for Portugal. I thought he would retire after the WC.
 
KeanoMagicHat said:
There’s a reason why he broke the cap record too, it’s also because he doesn’t have the self awareness to go ‘hey, maybe it’s time to give the young players a shot’. He is such a massive figure in the game that his presence overwhelms teams and managers and it all circles around his orbit. That was fine when he was one of the best players in the world, but he’s nowhere near that.

He’s the Portugal equivalent of a good guest at a party but has stayed to 2am and won’t leave, everybody else is gone and the hosts are too polite to say anything.
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Or maybe...y'know...the coach finds it helpful to have a player of his vast experience in and around the squad. Your posting on Ronaldo over the years doesn't exactly scream impartiality, so I may take your party guest analogy, cute as it was, with a pinch of salt.
 
ayushreddevil9 said:
No. Weghorst will do better than Ronaldo in the Saudi league. Thats it.
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Based on what? Ronaldo scored more for United in his patchy, half sulking few games this season than Weigy has in way more minutes since.
Unless this is a better for the team working hard etc etc debate.
 
KeanoMagicHat said:
There’s a reason why he broke the cap record too, it’s also because he doesn’t have the self awareness to go ‘hey, maybe it’s time to give the young players a shot’. He is such a massive figure in the game that his presence overwhelms teams and managers and it all circles around his orbit. That was fine when he was one of the best players in the world, but he’s nowhere near that.

He’s the Portugal equivalent of a good guest at a party but has stayed to 2am and won’t leave', everybody else is gone and the hosts are too polite to say anything.
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Judging from another response about your post, I take it that you have a history of posting criticism of Ronaldo so obviously nothing is going to change your mind and that's fine as you're entitled to dislike or not rate whoever you choose.

But I'll just point out that Ronaldo scored 13 goals in 14 internationals in 2021, and 24 goals in the PL in the 2021/22 season. So was delivering the goods in the very recent past. That was followed by a poor 2022 - pretty much his first poor year in his entire career. But just because they haven't jettisoned a player with his record and experience after one poor season isn't wrong. As others have pointed out, manager's often have some older member's of the squad who provide the experience, leadership, winning mentality, etc. Including the likes of Pepe in the current set up who is even older.

You use the fact that he's still desperate to play for his country at 37/38 as a negative and a stick to beat him with - for every other player in the game to still have that eagerness, desire and hunger has been seen as nothing but a positive reflection on them. Maybe you do criticise those other players who stlll look to keep themselves fit and maintain that hunger and desire late in their careers, in which case, while I disagree with you, you're at least not being hypocritical. However if, like most, you normally see it as a positive attribute in a player, then you may want to question your hypocrisy in the case of Ronaldo?
 
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Okay I'm not fond of Ronaldo's personality, but congrats for breaking the appearence record and scoring a brace even if its against Lichenstein.
 
Gehrman said:
Okay I'm not fond of Ronaldo's personality, but congrats for breaking the appearence record and scoring a brace even if its against Lichenstein.
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An absolutely fine and valid attitude.

Everyone is, or should be, entitled to not like a person for personality reasons. That's subjective. It's when that dislike / hate leads to desperate attempts to try and downplay or belittle huge achievements that really can't be downplayed or belittled with any validity that it comes across as sour grapes and warped.

It's like all the Man United haters who tried desperately to undermine all our successes under Ferguson and clinging to things like ref / FA bias to help us, etc. It was pathetic.

And the same with Ronaldo's career. People can not warm / dislike / hate him as a person - especially as he's done it at huge clubs who are the most supported and most hated in their countries, so very divisive. But desperately trying to undermine all those continued achievements isn't. Nor is using the fact that he's still got the hunger and desire to play for his country at 38 as proof of his 'ego', when other players doing that are praised for their attitude, commitment, desire, etc.

So, yeah, perfectly fine to give reluctant praise while stating a personal dislike for an individual. But trying desperately to undermine any achievement because that dislike / hate is so strong? Nope, that's where "compelling reason will never convince blinding emotion."
 
Both sides have moved on…United have won a trophy…Ronaldo looks far more happy in Saudi.

The bitter sniping can stop now, just let the guy enjoy his last few years.
 
Vidyoyo said:
Meanwhile in the same reality, England's lionheart record breaker Harold Kane who is coveted by many caffers as a dream summer transfer has scored less than half the number of goals Ronaldo has international level, including notching up 5 against the mighty San Marino, and 4 against Albania, Bulgaria and Montenegro. A tally that accounts for 31% of his international goal total.

Really makes you think doesn't it.
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True.

Every international striker has games against weaker opposition and score goals against them - when it's Ronaldo, the hatred against him is so strong that apparently he should opt not to play against them and only his egp means he plays and scores to 'stat pad'. But it's fine, and not egotistical, for every other player to play and score against the minnows.

It was a competitive qualifier, and they picked their strongest team. And he was the earliest one to be taken off and rested despite being on a hat trick. It's not like they selected a weakened team but still picked Ronaldo. Or arranged friendlies at home to the likes of Panama and Curacao and played Ronaldo all 90 minutes before he eventually got his goal in the 90th minute to 'stat pad'.
 
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