I love Gareth Bale. Gareth Bale is wonderful. He's a fantastic player, and he's becoming, with every game, more of a leader and more of a game-changer, to the point where he is one of the best players in the league.

However.

Gareth Bale is not Ronaldo. No, he's not as good as Ronaldo, and the truth, he probably never will be, because Ronaldo is special. Ronaldo is on a level with Messi. Bale is not. Even as a Spurs fan, who loves Bale to death, I'm getting sick of all the stupid articles floating around out there, saying that he is going to be as good as Ronaldo, and thay he's one of the best 5 players in the world, and blah-blah-blah.

When Capello said that Bale was the best player in his position in the world, I thought it was a bit over-the-top, but still mostly true. I can think of no other left-winger in the world I would rather have. But that, while a little silly, was at least talking about his position. All the current hype about him being one of the top 5 in the world is just, to be honest, obnoxious.

Can anyone persuade me that I'm being unfair, and that I should be agreeing with every band-wagon writer who is half-assedly filling the internet with dodgy comparisons to Ronaldo?

'Cause from where I'm standing, it's over the top, it's dumb, it's annoying, and at the end of the day, it doesn't even really help him. 

/rant

dat panna

Better than Ronaldo? No. Can be? If he works hard. He's only 23, which means he has an ocean of time to develop. He has the talent, and he's a wonderful player. One of my favorites.

You've not been reading GMF have you? lol. They have had one about Bale and Ronaldo which was laughable to read.

u sound like u writing homework :)

GMF is a joke !!

Bale is a player with tremendous speed, great crossing ability, a great left foot and exceptional physical qualities.

Ask Maicon and Micah Richards ..... they will tell you better :-P ;-)

Having these qualities, he still has to improve his dribbling skills which IMO Franck Ribery and Cristiano Ronaldo have better control over.

Also Ribery and Ronaldo create far more chances than him, have better VISION, left foot is great, more or less same speed, physically challenging to any opponent.

In other words Bale is RAW, he needs a bit polishing to be One of the Best.

P.S. : I am always amazed how the media and many football fans forget to credit Franck Ribery for what he is ...... LETHAL !!

Lodatz you would choose Bale over Ribery and Iniesta who both play as LW? He will never become like Ronaldo, Ronaldo at 23 is better than Bale at 23.

@tdot: I'd rather have Bale than Ribery, yes. Iniesta doesn't count as a left-winger, to me, as I don't really see that Barcelona use wings at all.

Well simply put, Ronaldo is averaging well over 50 goals per season for the last three seasons, and he's scored over 30 goals in a season 5 times. Bale hasn't even done it once yet, but you can't deny that he's on the right track (cut him some slack, he's 4 years younger than Ronnie). But overall, if you were to rate Bale vs. Ronaldo, this is how I would put it.

Speed

Ronnie 9.5/10
Bale 9.5/10

No argument here. They're monsters when it comes to speed.

Stamina and strength

Ronnie 8.5/10
Bale 9.5/10

Ronaldo has more strength than most people credit him for, and he's able to sprint for a full 120 minutes of a match with extra time, as he proved in the CL final against Chelsea and in the EURO 2012 against Spain. As for Bale, the Inter Milan games should be pretty self-explanatory.

Ball control and dribbling

Ronnie 9.5/10
Bale 9/10

Ronaldo obviously has a natural born talent of the ball, and we all know that. But Bale is not far behind. He wisely uses his speed as a huge advantage to beat his opponents,

Crossing, passing, and vision

Ronnie 8.5/10
Bale 8/10

Bale is a great crosser of the ball, and makes lots of plays, but when you cut it to the chase, Ronaldo makes more critical passes that can decide the game. This is proved by Ronaldo having 10+ assists each season.

Set pieces

Ronaldo 9.5/10
Bale 8/10

Ronaldo is an extremely successful free kick taker, although very inconsistent. But when his shots are on target, you can call it a 50-50 of hitting the back netting. But this is not where Ronnie is most dangerous from. He's at his best on the receiving end of long free kicks and corners. And he has also been nicknamed "Penaldo" by Barcelona fanboys (due to him taking the majority of Real's penalties. What they fail to realize is that Barca earns about the same amount of penalties every season and Messi takes all of them too)

Heading

Ronnie 9.5/10
Bale 6.5/10

IMO, Ronaldo is one of the best headers in the world at the moment (for strikers I mean). Bale doesn't seem to score with his head as often though.

Long shots

Ronaldo 9.5/10
Bale 8/10

Monstrous shots from Ronnie. Bale is less accurate from distance, but he'll improve in this area over time.

Finishing

Ronaldo 10/10
Bale 8/10

Weak foot

Ronaldo 8/10
Bale 5/10

For a player who scores 50+ goals a season, it's hard for anyone to compare with him. Unfortunately for Ronaldo, a certain Lionel was born two years after him. Bale scores less than a third of the goals Ronnie scores, but he should improve over time. Although I doubt that Bale will ever reach the 40 or 50 mark in his career, unless he trains under a certain Sir Alex Ferguson/Jose Mourinho/Josep Guardiola.

So, in total, that's 82.5/90 for Ronnie and 72.5/90 for Bale. But this is just my opinion, so feel free to argue. Just saying though, Bale will never be Ronaldo. Like Lodatz said, you have to realize that Ronaldo is a man competing on the same level as Messi. There are few in history who can match that. And for Ronaldo to have the affect he has on his team and to score the amount of goals he does from a WING position is crazy (note that Messi plays as the central striker at Barcelona).

That's probably the best assessment I've ever seen, Dynas. Top notch. :)

In Dynastian's post I want to add two points here :

1. I think Madrid fans have come up with a name ... They call him "PENALDO" for he scores the penalties he takes. Messi misses his penalties .... so we call him "MISSI" ... (No offence to anyone as I am a big Messi fan)

2. As you said in the last line Dynastian about Ronaldo being a winger.... I remember the somewhat exact words of Mourinho in an interview ..... 

" They compare him with Messi ...... They say Messi scores more goals than Cristiano. Agreed. But how many times in history have you seen a Winger scoring 50+ goals in consecutive seasons ? "

P.S. :This comment is completely off topic and not intended to start another CR7 / LM10 war. I am lucky enough to see them play every week no matter who is better. Peace !

We call him Penaldo because a lot of his goals come from penalties. Messi takes as much penalties too but he scores a lot more in free play than Ronaldo does.
Dynastian I think you overrated Bale in the ball control aspect and overrated both Ronaldo and Bale in the free kick aspect. & underrated Ronaldo with the weak foot aspect.
I think it should be:
Ball control for Bale - 7.5/10
Freekick. Ronaldo - 7.5/10 & Bale - 6.5/10
Ronaldo weak foot 9/10

@tdot: Awww, c'mon man. Ronaldo is a fantastic free kick taker. 

(I'd give Bale an 8.5 for ball control. >.<)

Very solid evaluation, Dynastian.

And I'm glad some of you have noticed the fact that Ronaldo plays as a winger, while Messi plays as a striker. A striker simply scores more goals than a winger because it's his main job.

^^ So a wingers main job is creating chances? Then why do Messi, Ozil and even Benzema(who is an out and out striker) have more assists than Ronaldo. The fact is, Ronaldo is the main man for scoring goals for Madrid, irrespective of the position he plays.

@Golden
Messi doesnt play as a striker!
No one plays as a striker at Barcelona..!
Messi has a free role.If he is a striker how he has so many assists and create uncountable chances at everygame with his key passes?
For example,wtf a striker is doing here?
How many times have you seen Falcao,Ibra etc moving so far from the penalty area?
PS.Messi Always has been playing on the right wing until last year!2 years now he has this free role in order to create and score!
How is this a striker role?

I think that strikers never take the ball behind the half court and try to create or even score..

Sorry lodatz for being completely off topic!!
As for bale he is a fantastic player..
There is no need to Compare him with Ronaldo because Ronaldo at this age was playing as a RM or LM and not being so clinical and Accurate like now.
Ronaldo at the age of 23 was making more skills and dribbles but now he is far more effective !

@FredTilson: Yes, a wingers main job is to create chances, while a striker has the purpose of scoring goals. That's why they're placed where they are. When you say Cristiano is the main goal scorer for Real, that's simply because he's the guy with the best football proficiency. With that follows a stand-out position as a player, and as you say, regardless of which position you play in.

However, my point is, he's a winger who scores more goals than he assists, and if he was to play as a striker, he would unarguably net more. Therefore, I think it gets too silly to compare Ronaldo and Messi with the amount of goals they gain.

@Don: Messi does play as a striker. The videos you're posting don't prove anything; they're just telling us that football is a sport where everyone runs and have a free role. But the fact can't be denied; a striker is a striker. And I know he moved to the striker position last year, and that's exactly why I'm saying it gets too beside the point to set up Ronaldo and Messi and see who scored the most goals.

@Golden
i watch every Barcelona game and i can assure you that messi doesnt play as a striker!

In a way Bale is better because he can defend well but also has an amazing attack