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.

@tiki: KingHenry said some of what I was going to say, especially in that the Top 4 of the PL have not really weakened, and that 3 of them have new managers this season.

But, also, I think a point needs to be made about this consistency angle: Madrid, last season, lost 5 games and drew 7, in La Liga (they did not lose against Barca, just drew once). That means that 5 teams which were NOT Barcelona beat Madrid in games that Madrid 'should win', and 6 of them that are NOT Barcelona got a draw against them, in games that Madrid 'should win'. That's not wonderful consistency. That's why they came 2nd, 15 points behind Barcelona.

That's how football works.

But, the enormous gap (both in points and quality) between Madrid in 2nd place, and the guys in 3rd, 4th and 5th (9 points, 19 points and 20 points, respectively), shows you how much better Madrid are than anyone else other than Barcelona, in that league.

Of course they can have 'consistency', when no-one around them other than Barca are anywhere near as good as them.

Now contrast that with the PL, in which there are multiple teams, all operating at a comparable level. While Madrid were 20 points ahead of 5th placed Valencia, City (in 2nd) were only a measly 6 points ahead of 5th placed Tottenham. In fact, while the gap between 1st place and 5th was 35 points(!) in La Liga, in the PL it was only 17.

That's right. There were fewer points between 1st and 5th in the PL than there were between 2nd and 5th in La Liga, in a year where Barca matched Real's RECORD points haul from the previous season.

The reason no-one dominates the PL in the way that Bayern dominate the Bundesliga, and Barca/Real dominate La Liga, is because there is SO MUCH competition in there. All the games that Real/Barca/Bayern have, which they 'should win', but don't? There are twice as many of those games for EACH of the PL Top 4 contenders. That's owing to the strength of the league.

You simply can't have such a 'consistency' when there are enough teams around with the quality to take points off of you.

It also works against such teams, in Europe. If United, or Arsenal, or Chelsea (etc) did not have SO MANY fixtures in the league for which they need to have their full strength available, they'd be able to rest so many more players for big European ties. Bayern could rest their whole damn first team for at least half of their games in the Bundesliga, and still get a similar result. This means they can save their best players for the Big Nights in Europe. Same with Barcelona, and same with Madrid, when it comes down to it.

United, Chelsea, City, Arsenal, Tottenham etc, can't do that. They have far too many Big Games in the league to worry about, and the toll that this increased level of competition has taken upon English performances is obvious.

Think about when it was just the 'traditional' Top 4 of United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea. Between those 4 teams, the PL had 8 Champions League finalists in 8 years. Why? Because there was so much talent, and because those 4 were so clearly above everyone else in the league that they could just roll over most of the teams in the league without even their best XI on the pitch.

Now, when you have 6 or 7 teams (sorry, Southampton fans, but you're going to drop away like West Brom did last year), all vying for those slots, teams do not have such luxury any more. They have 15-20 really BIG games in the league, for which they need all of their best players. Compare that to the 4 or 5 Big Games that Barcelona can build up to, or the 5 or 6 that Bayern can save their best players for.

THAT's the root of the 'consistency'. It's not because the quality of the English Top teams has 'gone down' so much as it is that in Spain and Germany, all that league's best talent are funneled into 2 or 3 clubs, instead of the 6 or 7
in England.

And English teams, despite this, are STILL beating teams like Barcelona and Bayern, like Chelsea did in 2012. And like Arsenal did against Bayern last season. And how United should have done against Madrid last season. Chelsea were, well, they had a screw-up season, and so did City. This season? Chelsea top their group, and City are second behind Bayern themselves, while United and Arsenal ALSO sit top of the two toughest groups in the entire competition.

And this is despite such a lack of 'consistency' in the league, at the moment.

Madrid would be a contender for the PL title. But they would be no more of a contender than United, Chelsea, City and (I have to admit it) Arsenal. The fact that they can dominate more in a league where there are simply not as many good teams to challenge them does not mean that they are 'better'.

...or that they would walk into a much harder league and get a similar performance level. The current points gap between 1st and 4th in La Liga is 13.

In the Bundesliga? It is 10.

Already.

In the PL? It is only 4 points. FOUR POINTS. That is less than half of in Germany, and less than a third of that in Spain.

A team like Madrid, even with all their wonderful talent, is not going to come into that league and change this statistic. They would come and compete, and maybe they might have enough to win it if all goes well for them. But they would need to SERIOUSLY step up their game to do so, to play every match the way they play the big European ties, because the level they perform at currently, week-in, week-out would simply not cut it.

It's just insanity to suggest otherwise.

Lodatz explained it really well, just now waiting for knibis and how he will talk about La Liga is better than Premier League.

How did a forum on how Ronaldo's playing great turn into an argument over which league is better?

Because, damnit, it's a plot by Platini to avoid giving him the Ballon d'Or! He pays internet forum minions to talk about anything other than the fact that Ronaldo really is playing out of this world, right now.

^you said some fair points, about resting players...
I believe that an EPL team needs 5 or 6 players more than i la liga, because of the style of play and injuries, your point is defendable...
but for Chelsea, the CL they won didnt reflects EPL level that year, i mean ok they won the last English CL but no one bet a single pound on it, That was more like Drogba against the world...
You made fair points, but really Chelsea is an exeption in England, that year, there was no English dominance.

PL is better than la Liga there is no debate about that, Sorry for those who wanted to launch a false debate.

Ronaldo made more points with this amazing performance, and Zllatan is officialy out of the race...
At this level of playing, i can see him score +80 goals in a calendar year, he is not that far. Hatts off again.

Everyone should have his own point of view, if knibis has his own opinion he should be free to say it, even if you find it stupid... im against the official opinion that everyone must have or he will be turned into a RETARD.
The best thing here is that we have fans from every league and every country, be prepared to hear all opinions and debate, there is no hierarchy in a forum some stupid guys need to understand it, Quickzy or muara for me are 2 guys thats it, there is no one more legitimate than other, we are not in army. Thats another point, no need to develop it.

@tiki yes, everyone can have his own opinion, that's why it's called forum, to tell your opinion. I got nothing against YOU or KNIBIS we just all know that he likes to talk about this. But sometimes people just went really stupid, I'm one of them ofc too.

am i the only one here who thinks ribery is a bit overrated . he is great but I feel he is not the same caliber as ronaldo/messi.also I feel schweinstieger is the difference maker for bayern not ribery

@tiki: I do agree with you that Chelsea's performance in 2012 was not a sign of English 'dominance', but I do believe that in a time when everyone is talking about a 'decline' and/or lack of 'quality' in the English Top 4, having one of our Top 4 contenders manage to beat the two best teams in the world shows that our Top 4 is still punching the same weight as the European elite. Even the tem who finished 6th, that year.

And also that even inserting a Barca, a Madrid, or even a Bayern into the PL would do no more than guarantee being a contender for the title, as opposed to being a 'probable' winner, etc.

Hell, didn't Arsenal just beat BVB, and Chelsea take Bayern to penalties in the UEFA Super Cup? I'm not one to place much stock in the Super Cup results, but, considering it was Mou vs Pep I somehow suspect they both were trying very hard to win. ;)

I'm really not saying that the winner of the PL is the best team in Europe, or anything. I'm simply saying that our Top 4 are all punching at a similar weight to the rest of Europe's top teams, and they have a much harder task on their hands than Barca/Madrid in Spain, and Bayern in Germany (since BVB finished 25 points behind Bayen last year, I honestly see little reason to think the Bundesliga is anything more than a one horse race).

Anyhow. Ronaldo is playing incredibly.

@Lodatz

Although I'd like to point out that currently (as it looks like it's going to be), Atletico are on par with Real and Barca. So competition is slowly increasing, but the gap between 3rd place Real and 4th place Villareal is almost double digits already.

And another thing. The competition in La Liga would be much more present IF the remaining clubs reeled in a fair sum of money. These poor clubs run on a budget the width of a shoe string. It's a miracle Atletico are doing so well.

I'm not surprised that so many Spanish players choose to go to England. There is so much more money there, and more competition too. You don't just see damn captain Carles or captain Casillas lifting the trophy every year. There's actually a genuine chance of getting to be title contenders in England.

"And another thing. The competition in La Liga would be much more present IF the remaining clubs reeled in a fair sum of money. These poor clubs run on a budget the width of a shoe string. It's a miracle Atletico are doing so well."

I entirely agree with you, there. I guess it's just a case of What If vs What Is, you know?

alright people to go back to the topic, here's an infographic showing Ronaldo's stats in 2013. The As stand for the assists of course :

No one else deserves the ballon d'or more than him.