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| Cristiano Ronnaldo |
July 6, 2009, and 80,000 had just invaded the Bernabeu to spend their
Monday afternoon watching Cristiano Ronaldo do keepie-uppies on a stage.
It beat the 55,000 that attended Kaka's unveiling at the same venue just
six days before, and the 75,000 that welcomed Diego Maradona to Napoli from
Barcelona in 1984.
Legends such as Eusebio and Alfredo di Stefano lining up to meet
Ronaldo, photographers scrambling on top of one another, classical music with a
dash of heavy metal blasting from the speakers, 50-odd supporters invading the
stage; it was hysteria, and just the beginning.
Ronaldo's six-year association with Manchester United ended with this
unveiling.
'This is my new home. To me, this is a dream come true,' Ronaldo
announced after Real Madrid's club president Florentino Perez had warmed up the
audience for the headline act. He had been presented to the world, and was
handed the No 9 jersey once worn by the great Di Stefano.
Ronaldo completes his sixth season in La Liga tonight – as many as he
played in the Barclays Premier League – but how does his career with one
compare to the other?
Ronaldo's 118 goals in Manchester before his 310 in Madrid show how he
has mastered his art. He was signed as a Galactico and remained one, refusing
to give up until he wins – or at least scores.
Break his goals down by when they go in – whether in the first
quarter-hour, the second, the third, and so on – and that becomes apparent.
Let's face it, there's never a good time to try to stop a three-time Ballon
d'Or winner. Yet, unfortunately for defenders, there is a worse.
Even if you survive until the 75th minute, you're not done. The forward
is most lethal from the 76th onward, both from his six seasons in Manchester
and Madrid.
At Old Trafford, he scored more goals (28) in the final quarter-hour of
a match than in any other period. Likewise at the Bernabeu (64).
Getting closer to being a 30-something was no hindrance and still isn't
– a lesson Espanyol learned last week, like so many before them, when he scored
in the 83rd and 90th minutes.
Yet Ronaldo is more than just a goalscorer – he has turned into a
provider. He made just 34 assists in total at United but has 65 at Real, with
his 16 this season blitzing his previous tallies.
But losing the popularity contest to Lionel Messi allows the critics to
come out of the woodwork.
Some label him a tap-in specialist, claiming he's lost the art of
scoring a beautiful goal.
He does, according to the maths, prefer to score from 18 yards or less
nowadays – since the move, his percentage of goals from inside the box is
up (80.5 to 84.8), while goals from outside are down (19.5 to 15.2).
But what about that nickname – 'Penaldo' – which dusts itself off
whenever he scores from 12 yards?
Since moving from Manchester to Madrid, the percentage
of Ronaldo's goals that come from penalties has risen from 14.4 per cent to
18.1, having scored 17 at United but 56 at Real.
Yet this hardly calls for negative feedback.
It was in February when Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart saved
Messi's penalty in the Champions League to give the Barca boy a spot of bother.
That stop meant Messi had failed with 13 of his 59 attempts at penalties, while
Ronaldo had missed just five.
Questions were being asked pre-2009 whether Ronaldo was an expert of the
dead ball. His 30-yard free-kick against Portsmouth in 2008, for example, gave
David James no chance, and introduced a new technique to hit the ball, which
Gareth Bale and others have adapted.
Yet at Madrid this is a black mark on his CV.
His ratio for scoring from free-kicks this season is just 3.1 per cent,
having taken 32 and scoring just one. Last year, it was 10 per cent. The year
before, 8.2. And before that, 3.6.
But how does he score his goals? Starting with his 118 in Manchester –
19 with his left foot (16.1 per cent), 77 with his right (65.2), 21 with his
head (17.8), and one with his chest.
Followed by his 310 in Madrid – 54 with his left (17.4), 210 with his
right (67.4), 45 with his head (14.5), and, again, one with his chest.
He has finessed his finishing with his feet, but uses his head less.
Not that he could ever beat that goal against Roma in their
Champions League quarter-final in 2008 anyway, meeting a lofted cross by Paul
Scholes at the Stadio Olimpico.
It was just one of four assists made by Scholes for Ronaldo – six behind
Wayne Rooney and 12 behind the ever-present Ryan Giggs.
Yet he has been provided for better at Real Madrid over the past six
years, it seems, with Karim Benzema (31), Mesut Ozil (27), Angel di Maria (22)
and Bale (18) topping the list for assists.
But there is a downside to all this, even with his goalscoring exploits
in Spain. This narrative cannot be all positive, after all – not when you leave
a club such as Manchester United.
The dampener is that he has lifted fewer trophies at one than the other.
Ronaldo won nine in England, including three Barclays Premier League
titles, the FA Cup and the Champions League. Yet, since 2009, he has just seven
honours. Messi, by comparison, has 14.
It is that statistic which is enough to cause Ronaldo to pull one of his
infamous sulks. He wants to be a winner, but his CV states he won more at his
former club than his current.
TROPHIES AT MAN UTD
3 – Premier League
1 – FA Cup
2 – League Cup
1 – Community Shield
1 – Champions League
1 – Club World Cup
9 TROPHIES IN TOTAL
TROPHIES AT REAL MADRID
1 – La Liga
2 – Copa del Rey
1 – Supercopa de Espana
1 – Champions League
1 – UEFA Super Cup
1 – Club World Cup
7 TROPHIES IN TOTAL
That leads him to tonight, when Getafe can rub salt into Real Madrid's
La Liga, Copa del Rey and Champions League-shaped wound.
Poor old Getafe, however, may not have it easy. They are Ronaldo's
joint-second favourite opponent in history, given he has scored against them 15
times, just six shy of Sevilla.
It may feel like dotting the i's and crossing the t's, but even scoring
in a dead rubber is in his blood. He got a hat-trick last week while Barcelona
were being crowned champions of Spain, after all.
That was what Perez was hoping for when he took Ronaldo out for a staged
lunch in between his medical at Madrid's Sanitas La Moraleja Hospital and
ceremony at the Bernabeu in 2009.
For most, his time at Real Madrid has been better spent than at
Manchester United.
Yet there is that debate again. What matters most: goals, or trophies? Your pick.
Source:dailymailsport
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