The problem is that Cristiano's greatest strengths aren't exactly what the average fan romanticizes about. The fans judge most forwards on their goals, their decision making and how good they are on the ball. Passing, scoring and dribbling aren't the 3 things that matter for a forward in football though. Athleticism, counter attacking play, poaching, making good runs, crossing, aerial threat, off the ball movement, etc... Not only these qualities but their consequences. Cristiano's aerial threat doesn't result only in goals, but also defensive clearances on set pieces, it means there's a player you can hoof the ball to without risky build up play, it makes space for other attackers in the box both in set pieces and open play and it makes wing play a lot more effective meaning the opponents can't simply close down the middle. Having someone with his aerial ability is a major advantage in football and one that most managers love to have in a player but when people compare the greatest players with eachother it barely comes up. It's the same for crossing or even counter attacks, he's probably the greatest counter attacking threat to ever play the game, his speed over large distances and his intelligent movement makes it a nightmare to play a high line against and it means the opponents can't overcommit people forward but this doesn't get talked about while 'running the game' is. I simply don't get why running the game is so important, if in the future there's a guy like Inzaghi that scores over 2000 goals by scoring 5 goals per match, leads his teams to huge successes both at club and country level, can't he be the greatest of all time and be put alongside Pelé or Maradona too? It seems like either you're a certain type of player or you'll never be a part of the discussion.
People mention Cristiano not having the vision and passing of Messi or Maradona but nobody seems to care they are pretty much irrelevant in the air while Cristiano is one of greatest headers of the ball ever, if not the best. And while Cristiano certainly isn't as good of a passer and dribbler as them he's still very good at it. Messi is talked about as one of the greatest creative players ever and Cristiano as a player who creates little for the team and yet since Cristiano started out in Manchester that huge difference in passing and vision has had as direct impact a difference of 0.095 assists per game between them. That's pretty much 1 more assist for Messi every 10 games.
And while their goalscoring records are similar that isn't really true for the latter stages of the Champions League and I do think this makes Cristiano Ronaldo not only the better goalscorer of the two, but the greatest goalscorer of all time since Pelé's numbers are massively skewed (he scored 700+ official goals but plenty of them were in a regional brazilian league). This is the biggest stage in world football against the best opponents and defenses and Messi's numbers go down while Cristiano's are always there. I'll take the player who's more likely to decide the big Champions League games over the player with one extra assist every 10 games who runs the game. I have no problem if someone prefers Messi and think it's a fair opinion either way but saying Cristiano can't be up there with Pelé, Maradona or Messi because he doesn't have the right skill set is just wrong for me.
