That's the joy of hindsight matth. If Real knew he was going to become as good as he is now then of course they'd have paid £150m. But for all they knew back then he would burn out at the age of 26, or break his leg, or be the next Anelka. Just look at Kaka - one knee injury and surgery and he ended up being close to a £56m flop for them. It's like buying a lottery ticket. If you knew it was the winning ticket you'd pay hundreds of thousands for it, but until you know that it's not worth the same.
Definietly better at Real Madrid. He had to leave Man Utd to rid the shackles, Real have made him the player he is today
Must say since I dont watch Spanish football (as it sucks outside of El Classico) that I havent really seen much of Ronaldo since he left United. But the stats would show he is a much better play now than he ever was in terms of goals, assists etc. Plus he was only 24 when he left United so was a couple years from his peak, so it was obvious he would improve.
Jose took him on a level in 2010/11: Pichichi and Golden shoe. And even though Messi got more goals, 11/12, Jose and Ron broke Barca's stranglehold on the title: some achievement. We can't compare La Liga with the Prem, but look at how many more goals Ronnie got under Jose compared to Fergie in CL. 11/12, 10 CL goals: more than he ever got at United 12/13, he broke Messi's strangehold on CL topscorer: 12 And he has carried on that progress under another Chelsea legend Carlo. 17 last season Think Ron went 18 CL games without scoring under Saffa
Lot of confusion betwewn better footballer and better goalscorer. Hes much more limited at madrid. All about goals now. Much more about general performance at united.
You may have a point but....goals scored are facts (or fakhts if you will) and can't be contested. Whether he was a better footballer is merely a matter of opinion.
This is true, but then trophies and team success are also facts. He has scored more goals at Real, but won more trophies at Utd. Which of those is the sign of a better footballer is also a matter for opinion
Football is a team sport so winning trophies is a team effort. I could simply point at Alan Shearer to show that a great player can win less than a poorer one such as Salomon Kalou. Individual stats can also be mis-leading of course. Stick someone like C.Ronaldo in a quality attacking Real team and he will score a hat full of goals, put him in the defensive minded West Ham side and although he still scores, it is at a much lower rate. The only true judge of a player is opinion which obviously can't be the same worldwide.
Pretty simple really, has he got worse? Has he stagnated? If you can answer yes to either of those he was better at United, otherwise it's pretty obvious he's now better.
Its not obvious though ruff. Hes more productive at madrid. Absolute machine. No question. He was a brilliant footballer at united though. Both for club and country. He had more to his game imo. Better goalscorer now. Nothing to do witg madrid though.
I stand by what I said. If he's not got worse or stagnated then he's got better. He quite simply has to have improved as a footballer as he's matured and reached his peak. There is no way he's worse, that's for certain, and he's hardly stood still.
I'm sure Fergie said that he told Gill to get 150 million from Real Madrid, I could be wrong though Swarbs.
Scoring goals is also largely a team effort. If anything, goals are more subjective - Kevin Phillips scored more PL goals than Zola and almost as many as Cantona playing in a worse team over fewer seasons. I agree it is all down to opinions, but my opinion is that there is no objective basis for claiming he is better or worse now than he was in 2008. More mature and more prolific, but that doesn't necessarily mean better.
SAF may well have told him that. But if that's true then it just proves Real wouldn't have paid £150m, as they didn't pay £150m.
