He's been just amazing to watch recently. I mean, people will always make excuses for his performances (e.g. Messi still better, "If Messi wasn't injured, he would outscore Ronaldo", Ronaldo still only has 3 trophies with Madrid, still stuck on one Ballon d'Or, etc.). But since the start of this season, he's been on fire. 24 goals and 4 assists in 17 appearances show how good he is. He's scored as many league goals as Ibrahimovic and Messi combined. He's scored only one less goal than Edinson Cavani and Zlatan Ibrahimovic COMBINED.

Personally, I am pretty damn sure that Ribery is going to win the Ballon d'Or. But with Ronaldo's performances, he should surely beat Messi to 2nd place. In fact, I think that Ibrahimovic should be 3rd, and Messi 4th (Ballon d'Or will now have 5 finalists instead of 3, with 3 winning the Golden, Silver, and Bronze balls, and 2 of them not winning anything). But in terms of individual performances, Ronaldo surely tops this entire calendar year ahead of everyone.

Ronaldo has also scored 62 goals for club and country this calendar year, 17 more than Messi (who was injured for a bit of the season). But even without Messi's injury, it's hard to see Ronaldo NOT be ahead of him since 2013. His goal+assist per game record (1.57) is better than Messi's in 2013 (1.55). And what's more, he's never lost a game with Real Madrid in which he has found the back of the net (excluding that own goal against Granada, lol). With 225 goals, he is only behind Ferenc Puskas (242), Carlos Santillana (289), Alfredo Di Stefano (305), and Raul (323) in Madrid's scoring charts. He's scored more goals in 5 seasons than most Madrid players have in 10 years.

Carlo Ancelotti - "For me, the best player right now is Cristiano Ronaldo"

Arsene Wenger - "Messi was on top until now. But since last year, maybe Ronaldo is in front. He very athletic"

Luis Figo - "With his quality, what he stands for, and his performance in every game, he can always win the Ballon d'Or"

If the Ballon d'Or is going to be based on individual performances like it has been for the last couple years, then Ronaldo ought to win it. But if it will be based on team accomplishments as well as individual performances, then Ribery must surely be the winner.

Heck, if I knew Ronaldo would get so motivated by being criticized, I would pay Blatter money to publicly mock Ronaldo, so that the man can go on and score goal after goal.

Just scored an out-of-this-world hattrick for Portugal in the playoff. Machine. That's the word.

yah quikzyyy I bet stoke player would have bets seeing who could injure him first

@Lodatz Actually no English team are that consistent except Arsenal, and im sure even Atletico will got a chance....
If Chelsea and United had their old level, their will be no other title contenders anymore.
The midtable improved past years in England, but the big 4 has also decresed, thats why Everton Southampton and Tottenham are actually well ranked than others, competitivity could be seen by 2 angles not just one.

@Congrats golden, your team deserved it, fair and square...

Im loving how France haters are keeping quiet right now, Cheers ;)

If you are going to Rio, dont forget to thanks Sakho :)

@golden maybe his out of this world hattrick was because of his out of this world boots

@Tiki

To be fair, France got lucky with that offside goal from Benzema. They worked very hard though, so I guess they deserve the win in the end. Even it it did require some luck. :P

The game could be 7-0 you clearly didnt see the whole game, and for the offside goal just stop talking, 5min before the same player scored a legitimate goal and was refused, what did you want ? Sometimes Justice exists and im happy we got it in the same game by the same player, i would be happier if the legitimate goal was accorded and the offside one refused, but it doesnt matter for me as there is some equilibrium in the decisions.

To end up this offside argumentation :

• • The refused goal + +

• • The accorded goal + +

Something else ????

@Tiki

No need to get so defensive. 2 wrongs don't make a right, but I understand what you're saying. I watched the first half of the game, and I think I know what I'm talking about. Doesn't matter if it could've been 7-0 or not, it ended 3-0, with France having good luck on their side. The good thing is that they improved their performance from that terrible 2-0 loss to Ukraine the first time around.

Im a bit defensive but you obliged me too, starting your sentence by to be fair : that was not a fair argumentation at all, you also could say, France got refused an absolute legitimate goal but you saw the offside one instead, its your right but dont blame me to respond.

@Tiki

Like I said, two wrongs don't make a right. The fact that the linesman flagged the first goal wrongly offside doesn't give him the right to flag the offside goal ONside. It just makes him look that much worse of a linesman. If he was a good linesman, he wouldn't have made those two mistakes in the first place. All I wanted to point out is that France required some luck to win. A fabulous performance, but luck was still needed.

I have no problem with you responding. I just didn't appreciate the offensive response.

@tiki_taka: Congratulations to you and France as well. Well fought. They're definitely a team that belongs among the elite.

@charlie33: Aha, those recent videoes from Nike about Ronaldo tend to have an awkward kind of ambience to it.

@tiki: see, when you make claims like Atletico and the PL like that, you make the conversation too silly. Why make the conversation silly?

As for United, Chelsea etc, I seem to recall United needing a dodgy red card to get shafted by a Madrid side they were clearly superior to, and a 10-man Chelsea beating the best team Spain has ever produced, not very long ago.

Hell, I also recall that Arsenal lost 3-3 on aggregate to a team who thrashed you 7-0.

See, football is one of those games where results count more than media reputation.

@Dynast : Ok, whatever im in good mood actually, dont feel agressed that was not my point. imo I would find it more scandalous if both were accorded or refused, but i respect your opinion since you talk about both mistakes, appologies then.

@Golden : Thanks mate, that was a breathtaking confrontations , credit to Sweden and Ukraine for the good fight.... Hope Europe will be well represented, the south American sides are on fire....

@Lodatz

I'm sure the Madrid - Juve and the Madrid - Dortmund results count for something. Madrid lost out to Dortmund 3-4 on both occasions, which show that Madrid were very close to being the caliber to reach the UCL final (taking in to mind, of course, that the United loss was unlucky). This time around, we beat Juve 2-1 without one of our most important players (Alonso), and we tied them at the Juventus Stadium. I know the Chielini red card was stupid, but if we had Alonso, we would've surely done better (as he is twice as good as Illarra).

@lodatz
ok but you showed just the result you wanted, my opinion is clear : English teams of the moment are not consistent, they can win great games but they actually struggle against some average teams, ask Dynast how much dificult is to win a 38 games league with such constant sides even if you beat Barça twice...
Chelsea can beat Arsenal and loose against weaker sides, a potential league winner must dominate and win all easy games, and no English team is that consistent...
What Arsenal did this season is just the minimum to be top 2 in Bundesliga and Liga, EPL midtable teams are probably stronger than pastyears but the big 4 is not in good shape, in other words, the level is becoming similar while its the oposite in other leagues...

EPL this season reminds me the ligue 1 before P$G and Mona£o, while 7 or 8 teams have the same level and all fight for the title, i think EPL lack of dominating teams..
Dont missunderstand me, in term of points to have, Epl is the most dificult league but in term of consistency,there is no team that prooved they could get in Bayern level, beiing in that level for one game doesnt make you as consistent as Bayern all the season...

Everton,Tottenham and southampton level has drastically improved, but dont forget the bad form of United who were always 10 pts ahead of other teams for years, thats dominating, that is having consistent season, i think that EPL big teams level have actually decreased while EPL is being more homogeneous in term of average level, that makes the league more competitive there is no doubt, but other top 2 in Spain and Bundesliga fights for the title are in an other level wich looks like the old United/Chelsea or Arsenal/United fights for the title with more easy games i admit, BUT EASY GAMES MUST BE WON...

RM could have dropped a lot of points, but all the comebacks, the last minutes goals are a sign of what demending is to keep winning every little game, to be catch up leaders.
I assume that RM would have more than 3 titles in 5 years if they were in actual EPL, with less points than la liga but at least 2nd everytime.

Im not hating or being silly, i think that midtable teams has not catched up big four level, they improved but big 4 dominance is not what it was too...
How could United beat Arsenal and loose all that amount of points against relegable teams, in Spain or Germany 9pts difference is absolutly impossible to catch knowing the every weak motivation to win and score as much goals as they can. But its my opinion CL results this year will say if English teams are at the same level at Europe top 4 or not. When you see Chelsea loosing to Bale and United drawing against the weakest Sociedad side of past 3 years ( trashed 5-1 by RM the week later) and you see Everton,Southampthon, Newcastle results against big four,excuse me but i can have the right to ask myself some questions....

@Dynast: Juventus would not be contenders for either the Spanish or English titles, though, to my mind. @tiki: I'll reply to later tonight when I'm off work.

Ok Lodatz take your time, see you later mate.

@tiki you make some fair points, but I have to disagree. You say the top four have droped in quality, but all the top teams of the EPL have brought in a lot of new players over the last few years. Just notice the spanish exodus out of la liga to the EPL. I think the level of the teams has risen overall, but all the top 4 teams except for arsenal have a new manager this season. You can add Everton as well and it's only the second season of villas boas at tottenham, with tons of new players. I think that you could be right about this season, about the consistency of the big teams. Madrid would probably win. But next year when the teams have acquired the wanted chemistry, the level of the EPL will be extremely high.

EDIT : almost forgot, FUCK YEAH FRANCE IS GOING TO BRAZIL !!!! Best game of our national team I've seen in a looooong time. Are we the only two frenchmen on the forum btw ? Just wondering.

I am half french. never lived in France though. The match was brilliant. Pogba was immense and Varane and Sakho looked very good as well. Also loved the support in the stadium, the fans were truly behind the team.

Coming to the topic, I would agree with Tiki Taka's point though, the top 4 of the Spanish and German leagues are better than their English counterparts at the moment. But the average quality across the top 10 of the PL is better than any other league.

Lol, i think there is fredtilson and expertfootball, the guy who claims he is an expertvon his pseudo :) anyway congrats.

@Kinghenry I agree with you about the future, teams are underconstruction and could be better next year as the level of big teams, but i am only talking about this year.
Last year, United was the dominating side...

@ fred i just saw your comment, Congrats to you, btw where do you live ?