During the 100th anniversary of the Portuguese Football Federation in Estoril, Ronaldo was declared the greatest Portuguese footballer ever, picked ahead of the likes of Rui Costa, Luis Figo, and Eusebio. Ronaldo was unavailable to attend due to a Copa del Rey match against Atletico de Madrid, but Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini were both present.

http://www.itv.com/sport/football/update/2015-01-15/ronaldo-named-best-portuguese-player-ever/

Did you ever watch him play? No. I'm basing myself of what legends like Pele, Cruyff, Maradona, R9, and many many others said about him. If you have a problem, then write a formal letter to each one of them expressing your feelings and why what they are saying is wrong. Don't shoot me, I'm just the messenger.

Mourinho voted coach of the century was very well deserved too. It's unbelievable to think that those two Portuguese legends worked with each other at one point in their careers.

And speaking of Ronaldo, he's 2 goals away from being Madrid's 3rd highest goalscorer! He's on 288. Carlos Santillana has 289. :D

^ Yess he will break the record trust me!!

@Iraqi

It will be unbelievable if he breaks Raul's record this season. I'm sure he will beat Di Stefano's before May, provided that he doesn't get injured or pick up some red cards, but breaking Raul's will be something special for sure!

No not this season but next season he will. And he will break Messi's record in the CL. I always believe in CR7 he is a player who can change everything in football or in a match.

lol zidane wasn't a complete player?hahah defending brilliant, free kicks brilliant, heading brilliant, passing brilliant, driblling perfect nobody should ever compare zidane to any other player.

My all time favorite Portuguese player would be Deco. Ronaldo is no doubt the best Portuguese player ever. Cheers CR7!

ok .. time to face the threat of footyroom being run by CR7 fanboys , lets get this started

calling all CR7 fanboys here , first thing first , can you guys elaborate in full details what is the definition of a complete player in your books ? would like to know how is c.ronaldo the most complete player IN FOOTBALL HISTORY ?

"best player in history " gotta agree with tiki 100% here , NO COMMENT
"zidane may be one of the best players but still isnt complete as CR7 " again, NO COMMENT

named greatest portuguese footballer ever , must admit he is a great player , but on the level or the talent of EUSEBIO , no way for me , EUSEBIO will and always be the greatest portuguese player ever

@tiki look, why do u always like start arguments here, if messi was Portuguese than yes you can have ur debate but no, so ur going off topic.

Plus, if u don't like people hating on messi, than don't go and hate on ronaldo, ur problem is that ur "forcing" people to like messi, I like and admire messi and I think that he and ronaldo would be in my top 10, but their order will be my opinion, do u like strangers forcing u to like their favorite car or food or clothes, no u will be annoyed, so debating is ok but stop forcing everyone to like or think messi is the best of all time

Cause R9 has demolished your every aspect of the perfect player ;)

@Eyoneer_RED Zidane wasn't as complete as Ronaldo because he didn't have the poaching ability Ronaldo has. Obviously I think Zidane is the better player, but in terms of being a complete athlete and footballer, Ronaldo is better.

@Enjoyneer

I'm sorry, but have you seen Eusebio play? Were you alive back in the 1960's? Judging from your excellent punctuation, grammar, and spelling, I can safely assume that you are no older than me. How can you declare Eusebio to be the greatest ever Portuguese player for you if you've never seen him play? What arguments do you have for Eusebio being better than Ronaldo? Naturally, you have none. You simply stated "Eusebio will and always [will] be the greatest Portuguese player ever". No facts to back it up.

For you, Eusebio may be the greatest Portuguese player ever, but you know nothing of Portuguese football compared to the Portuguese Football Federation themselves. If they declare Ronaldo to be better than Eusebio, Deco, Rui Costa, and Figo, then he truly is better than them. These men are 100 times more qualified to judge football than you or me, and frankly, our opinions don't matter in front of them. If Messi was declared the greatest Argentine player in history by the Argentine Football Association, over Maradona, then the rest of us will have no business arguing. Because we can not compare our football knowledge to theirs. Especially not when it comes to Argentine football players. Likewise, Ronaldo has officially been declared the best Portuguese player in history, not by fans, fanboys, or haters, but by the Portuguese Football Federation themselves, and this is now a fact. Whether you wish to swallow this or not depends on you.

Seriously, I wouldn't care if you simply stated that you believe Eusebio to be better than Ronaldo. I genuinely wouldn't care. It's your opinion. But calling us all "Real Madrid fanboys" isn't something I'm going to let slide.

Couldn't have said it better myself Dynastian

For Ronaldo/Eusebio i didnt watched him play only highlights, but in term of stats he seemed amazing in a period when the ball and Football was not the same, so i let the Portuguese judge their own top players...

For the best ever thing, well this shouldnt even be an argumentation case,simple case :

The best players in History were players making the differences, they do not benefit from the team strenght, in fact they are the strengh, scoring week in, week out is something amazing, exceptional but not just enough, because what i blame Ronaldo for is not his goal scoring ability, its the ability of bringing the team to its best when they arent performing good in the pitch, its inexplicable but players like Zidane Maradona had this, they made the most decent strikers with them shine as lions, i remember France - Brazil in 2006 where Brazil were the biggest contenders ever with a monster team stronger than the winning side of 2002, with in form Kaka,Ronaldinho,Ronaldo... France were underdogs and scared until Zidane first touch, he gave them in 3 magical touches the confidence and the conviction that with him no accomplishement is impossible and some decent players did the game of their lifes...

This is the magic of big players, when the team is not doing well they appear and change things, Ronaldo proved that when his team is not in form specially the midlefied, unlike a Penalty or a set piece, he cant help...

The magic can be a solo goal, a last minute chance created, an assist, a genious move in key moment of the game, thebiggest Legends were never depending on their teams form, they were the form and the off form...

Ronaldo cant be the best ever because he is not even the best of his era, Messi is clearly better, only lacks leading powerness that you can find on Puyol, but despite not raising his voice in the half time or in the dressing room,everything starts with him, he bosses the midlefield and the attack, he score and assists, dictate tempo, keeps possesion, play in every single era of the rival zone

Ronaldo in a game ends up scoring a brace and his mark depends highly on the goal because he does few things aside of this, but Messi ( despite scoring a hattrick ) doesnt need to score to see his influence on the game, his ratings and work rate are always high because he does more than just scoring or assisting, plus his pressure on defenders is ncredible, defenders look at Messi position and who mark him before going forward for a set piece, you just cant let him with 2 meters space.

Messi without scring a single goal nor direct assist is more important for a team than any world class poacher, its a player who gives you so much versatility and comfort against many styles, many opposition, open playing a Messi team is quite mission impossible.

I let you judge by yourself, not influencing anyone but things are pretty simple if we want to compare fairly :

Each week, same thing happens, Fan boys justify with similar stats while if they watched both and were meant to be fair, you get to thesame conclusion.
With the new Fanboy gang absolutely allergic to arguments or objectivity at the point of making a decent performence world class when a player score tap in or penalty, if you want to compare someone with Messi than comparison should be on Messi influence level not this stupid thing : But he scored more, but penalties are part of the game, but everyone dives, but but but...

No need for words at the end, posting each week both players highlights would establish the biased from the one spot on...
For the fanboys, if no arguments are included into discussion, i wont reply.

You're comparing one of Messi's best games of the season with an average game for Ronaldo. Cristiano also scored a hattrick vs Deportivo, with no penalties. I'm not saying Ronaldo is the best in history, but comparing both videos to judge who is better is just dumb.

So Dynastian, just to be clear. Do you consider Ronaldo to be better than Eusebio now? Because I remember I once said Eusebio was a bit overrated soon after he passed away and that Ronaldo should be praised as high, and you criticized my opinion because I had never seen him play.

now... just for the sake of it. There is no adjetive that I can come up with right now to describe the people who say Ronaldo can be the best player in history. Lets start by comparing him to Messi, no need to go further than that.

@Tuanis

As I have stated, I have only seen Eusebio play from videos. From what I have seen, they are two completely different players. It's very difficult to compare Eusebio's explosive dribbling to Ronaldo's efficient play. Both of them score hundreds of goals, so there's no complaint in that department. At the end of the day, what sets them apart is probably their athleticism. Eusebio and Ronaldo both have extremely similar scoring records and trophies. They have been part of a team that went to the World Cup semi-final, and they have both won Champions League titles. It's difficult to compare since they are from different eras, but I'm going to give my confident vote to Ronaldo simply because of the fact that I never watched Eusebio play live.

@Tiki

As @RM17 said, you are comparing a mediocre game from Ronaldo to one of Messi's best performances this season. Why don't you compare the game Ronaldo played against Deportivo? Or how about Elche? Atheltic Bilbao? Then you'll see that there's literally no difference in the impact the two players have on their team. Stating Ronaldo isn't an important outlet for creating chances is ridiculous. The moment he gets the ball, it spells danger out for the other team in bright neon lights. His chances created, assists, goals, key passes, crosses, aerial dual percentage.... they're all phenomenal numbers. Not to mention that his athleticism is miles ahead of Messi.

Ronaldo is up in the top 10 bracket for multiple reasons. For those who find it difficult to digest this, think about it this way. Messi is called the 'greatest-ever' by many, right? And if Ronaldo is compared to Messi every single game, goal, assist, pass, touch, cross, and minute, then Ronaldo should surely be contesting for the spot of 'greatest-ever'. And if you don't believe that CR7 is comparable to Messi, then I'm sure that you aren't a football fan. :)

Discussion closed.

^ Except you forgot that you're not a mod. :)

C Ronaldo's a beast, and for me, the reason why he will always be climbing higher up the mountain than Messi is because of the fact that he worked his ass off from club to club to where he is now.

Messi's a great footballer, but the best footballer is someone who has shown the tenacity and ability to adapt from one footballing environment to another at the highest level of football we've ever seen - Ronaldo did that from Portugal to England and now to Spain. Ronaldo is a much more accomplished footballer in my eyes.

I like both equally, but in my opinion Cristiano is more complete, while Messi is the better player.