http://www.goal.com/en/news/1717/editorial/2013/03/19/3836544/whos-the-greatest-ronaldo-v-eusebio?ICID=AR_TS_4

ANALYSIS
By Kris Voakes

On the night Cristiano Ronaldo was unveiled as a Real Madrid player, he received the deafening applause of the Bernabeu crowd with a legend of the game over each shoulder. To his right stood Alfredo Di Stefano, the Blancos' wonderful forward of the 1950s and 60s, while on his left was Eusebio, then considered Portugal's finest ever footballer.

These days, question marks are beginning to be asked as to whether the 'Black Panther' really is the greatest player to come from the Iberian nation, and it is because of the successes of Ronaldo that Eusebio's status as an untouchable great is being doubted.

Almost four years after arriving at Real Madrid in a world record €94 million transfer, Ronaldo has taken his game to an entirely new level. With 189 goals in 187 games in the famous all-white strip, the Portugal captain has a record to rival that of any player in recent history. At a time when goals are netted at a far more restrained rate than in bygone days, CR7’s unbelievable scoring rate stands out alongside Lionel Messi’s as a magnificent abnormality in the modern game.

For him to have become so central to the fortunes of a force such as Real Madrid is a massive achievement, and the two-time Goal.com 50 winner is rightly regarded as one of the two players who stand out as the greatest talents in 21st century football. Eusebio even referred to him as a god when he signed for the Blancos. “I cannot define him,” said the 71-year-old. “He is now the god of another world … At the moment he is the best player in the world.”

EUSEBIO v RONALDO - THE STATISTICSEUSEBIO
CRISTIANO RONALDO
715/727TOTAL GAMES/GOALS
611/3501.02GOALS PER GAME
0.5764/41INTERNATIONAL GAMES/GOALS
101/380.64GOALS PER GAME
0.3853/46EUROPEAN CUP GAMES/GOALS92/470.87GOALS PER GAME0.5111 Portuguese league
1 European Cup
5 Portuguese cupsMAJOR TROPHIES
3 English leagues
1 Spanish league
1 European Cup
1 English cup
1 Spanish cup1 European Player of the Year
1 World Cup Golden Boot
2 European Golden Shoes
3 European Cup top scorer
2 Portuguese Player of the YearINDIVIDUAL AWARDS
1 Ballon d'Or
1 World Player of the Year
2 European Golden Shoes
2 English Player of the Year
8 Portuguese Player of the Year
His sheer pace, trickery, set-piece mastery and ability to score from practically anywhere mark him out as a true great of the game, but does he have the right to claim to be better than Eusebio?

Statistically speaking, the former Benfica striker may well have benefitted from playing at a time when goals were easier to come by and high-scoring matches were a regular feature of football, but he still had the talent to stand out at a time when the game had countless heroes.Players such as Pele, Garrincha, Di Stefano, Ferenc Puskas, Bobby Charlton, Gerd Muller, Franz Beckenbauer and Gigi Riva were among the greatest ever to play the game, and Eusebio’s name sits comfortably alongside such contemporaries as a hero of the 1960s and 70s.

I cannot define him. He is now the god of another world ...  At the moment he is the best player in the world

• Eusebio on Ronaldo in 2009
  
  With a shot as powerful as any seen in the history of football, magnificent pace  – he could run the 100 metres in less than 11 seconds, and the ability to outwit many fine defenders of the day, the 'Black Pearl' took Portuguese football to a level it had never before known. After Bela Guttmann’s side had become only the second club ever to win the European Cup in 1961 beating Barcelona 3-2, his two goals in the 1962 final helped see off the all-conquering Real Madrid 5-3.

While that was his continental pinnacle with the club, he would go on to add a total of 11 Portuguese league titles with the Aguias, scoring a monumental 473 goals in 440 games before moving to the North American Soccer League, scpring more than 40 times in a season on five occasions during his Benfica career.At international level too, he broke down barriers. His nine-goal haul in the 1966 World Cup included a near one-man comeback show against North Korea in the quarter-finals, as Portugal came from 3-0 down to beat the minnows 5-3 with Eusebio netting four times. While the ace marksman never got to play in another finals tournament, the Seleccao’s third-place finish in their first-ever finals tournament remains their best ever World Cup performance.

The closest they have since come to matching that effort was in 2006, when Ronaldo inspired them to their second ever semi-final. The parallels between the two compatriots only begin there.

But who really is the greatest Portuguese player of all time? Statistics alone cannot be used to decipher, while footage of Eusebio at work is far less accessible than that of Ronaldo. Nowadays, any football fan in any part of the world can watch every minute of the former Manchester United man’s career if they so wish, and so there are countless examples of his brilliance available for everyone to use in supporting his claims to be the best. Clips of Eusebio, meanwhile, tend to be the very best moments of his time at the top of the game, cherry-picked for posterity.

When we played Real Madrid and won 5-3 it was soaking wet and the ball weighed a kilo. It didn't have a brand. Consider the boots; there was no personalised footwear. Back then, it was all heart

• EusebioIn many ways, drawing a comparison between these two Portuguese greats exemplifies the difficulties in separating players of differing generations, but while Ronaldo still has feats to achieve and points to prove, Eusebio’s status as a timeless legend remains untouched. And one of the reasons for that is best summed up by the man himself.

“I respect the football of today but the football of my time was better,” said Eusebio. “Football hasn't got better, it has just evolved, from the ball to the boots to the shirts to the training methods – everything around them.

“When we played Real Madrid and won 5-3 it was soaking wet and the ball ended up weighing a kilo. It didn't have a brand. Consider the boots; there was no personalised footwear. Back then we made money, but we played for the love, it was all heart.”

And the man who remains at the heart of every football fan in Portugal – for now, at least – is Eusebio, one of the great examples of a player who rose above the drawbacks of the time. With each year, Ronaldo is catching up, but the ‘Black Panther’ will still take some chasing.

Sorry it got messed up. >.<

The actual link is above the text, so you can see it properly there.

Ronaldo is better IMO.

Wonderful article. I wonder why only a few are mentioning Eusebio when we're talking about the greatest footballers of all time. I've never seen Eusebio, but his number of goals is just to be stunned by. To answer the question, I'll go with the easy one: Both are and will always be glorious footballers.

I think they are top players, but Eusebio was so important for World Cup and competitions like that.

What most people don't realize is that back then, the defending may not have been all that organized (and it led to easier goals for strikers and high-scoring games), but it was very difficult too. The quality of the pitch was very poor, the players' wages were very low, and when it started to rain, the ball would end up weighing a kilo. Nowadays, there's so much technology and advancement to help the players. Adidas even shaped Messi's cleats to match the curves on his feet, so that he can dribble the ball normally whilst keeping his feet straight. Back then, the likes of Pele, Muller, Eusebio, di Stefano, and Puskas had to dribble with the side of their feet, play with footballs that were not of such high quality, and have to deal with miniscule wages to the ones given out today. Back then, as Eusebio said, players such as these played not for the money, but for their heart. They loved the game for what it was. That's why you'll see much more loyalty towards clubs from players back then. Eusebio (Benfica), Pele (Santos), Muller (Bayern), di Stefano (Real Madrid), and Puskas (Real Madrid), spent the majority of their career at one club, which you won't see so often nowadays.

More goals than appearances for that guy :) (on benfica)