Cristiano Ronaldo is the greatest footballer ever

Judges please note: There is only one round, therefore I will first put down my arguments then refute my opponent’s claims. Criteria: ‘Cristiano Ronaldo is the greatest footballer ever’ I will in the following paragraphs try to argue that Cristiano Ronaldo is not the greatest footballer and that there have been many who considering statistics and scenario would prove to be far better than CR7. If I succeed in proving even one footballer is better than Cristiano Ronaldo, I believe I will have negated the resolution successfully. There have been many greats of the game, the list does feature Cristiano’s name but does not brand him or state him as the best there is. To prove my point I will use four examples,1. Johan Cruyff: He won the Ballon d'Or three times, in 1971, 1973 and 1974, which was a record jointly held with Michel Platini, Marco van Basten and Lionel Messi until Messi won his fourth award in 2012. Cruyff was one of the most famous exponents of the football philosophy known as Total Football explored by Rinus Michels, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in football history.[1][2][3][4] He led the Netherlands national team to the final of the 1974 FIFA World Cup and received the Golden Ball as player of the tournament.[5] At club level, Cruyff started his career at Ajax where he won eight Eredivisie titles and three European Cups. In 1973 he moved to FC Barcelona for a world record transfer fee, winning La Liga in his first season and was named European Footballer of the Year. After retiring from playing in 1984, Cruyff became highly successful as manager of Ajax and later FC Barcelona; he remains an influential advisor to both clubs In 1999, Cruyff was voted European Player of the Century in an election held by the IFFHS, and came second behind Pelé in their World Player of the Century poll.[6] He came third in a vote organised by the French magazine France Footballconsulting their former Ballon d'Or winners to elect their Football Player of the Century.[7] He was chosen on the World Team of the 20th Century in 1998, the FIFA World Cup Dream Team in 2002, and in 2004 was named as one of the Top 125 greatest living footballers as part of FIFA's 100th anniversary celebration Club Record Years Team Apps Goals 1964–1973 Ajax 240 190 1973–1978 Barcelona 143 48 1979–1980 Los Angeles Aztecs 27 14 1980–1981 Washington Diplomats 32 12 1981 Levante 10 2 1981–1983 Ajax 36 14 1983–1984 Feyenoord 33 11 Total 520 291 National Team Years Team Apps Goals 1966–1977 Netherlands 48 33 Honours Team Honours Team Trophy Years Ajax Intercontinental Cup 1972 Ajax European Cup 1971, 1972, 1973 Ajax European Super Cup 1972, 1973 Ajax Dutch Championship 1966, 1967, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1982, 1983 Ajax Dutch Cup 1967, 1971, 1972, 1983 Barcelona Spanish Championship 1974 Barcelona Spanish Cup 1978 Feyenoord Dutch Championship 1984 Feyenoord Dutch Cup 1984 Individual Honours Trophy Years Ballon d'Or 1971, 1973, 1974 IFFHS European Player of the Century SOURCES: ü [1] "The Best x Players of the Century/All-Time". RSSSF. Retrieved 13th June 2014. ü [2] "MENOTTI: "“Pelé fue el más grande". Elgrancampeon.com.ar. Retrieved 13th June 2014. ü [3] Interview: Alex Ferguson. Newstatesman.com. Retrieved 13th June 2014. ü [4] Fußball-Legenden – Die besten Fußballspieler aller Zeiten. Fussball-geschichte.com. Retrieved 13th June 2014. ü [5] "The Netherlands' Grand Master". FIFA.com. Retrieved 13th June 2014. ü [6] "The Best x Players of the Century/All-Time". RSSSF. Retrieved 13th June 2014. ü [7] "IFFHS' Century Elections". rsssf.com. Retrieved 13th June 2014. 2. Alfred Di Stefano: Di Stéfano, nicknamed "Saeta rubia" ("blond arrow"), was a powerful forward with great stamina, tactical versatility, and vision, who could also play almost anywhere on the pitch. He is currently the fifth highest scorer in the history of Spain's top division, and Real Madrid's second highest league goalscorer of all time, with 216 goals in 282 league matches between 1953 and 1964. In November 2003, to celebrate UEFA's Jubilee, he was selected as the Golden Player of Spain by the Royal Spanish Football Federation as their most outstanding player of the past 50 years. He was named by Pelé as one of the "top 125 greatest living footballers" in March 2004 (in September 2009, he said Di Stéfano was the best Argentinian player "ever").[11] Di Stéfano was voted fourth, behind Pelé, Diego Maradona, and Johan Cruyff, in a vote organized by the French weekly magazine France Football consulting their former Ballon d'Or winners to elect the Football Player of the Century. Players such as Pelé, Eusébio, Luis Suárez, Sandro Mazzola and John Charles described Di Stéfano as "the most complete footballer in the history of the game" Club Record Years Team Apps Goals 1945–1949 River Plate 95 79 1946 Huracán (loan) 55 40 1949–1953 Millonarios 131 120 1953–1964 Real Madrid 302 246 1964–1966 Espanyol 77 41 Total 660 526 National Team Years Team Apps Goals 1947 Argentina 6 6 1949 Colombia 4 0 1957–1961 Spain 31 23 Honours Team Honours Team Trophy Years Argentina Copa America 1947 River Plate Argentinean Championship 1945,1947 Millonarios de Bogota Colombian Championship 1949,1951,1952 Real Madrid Intercontinental Cup 1960 Real Madrid European Cup 1956,1957,1958,1959,1960 Real Madrid Spanish Championship 1954,1955,1957,1958,1961,1962,1963,1964 Real Madrid Spanish Cup 1962 Individual Honours Trophy Years Ballon d'Or 1957,1959 3. Diego Maradona: He is the only player in football history to set the world record transfer fee twice, first when he transferred to Barcelona for a then world record £5m, and second, when he transferred to Napoli for another record fee £6.9m [1] Maradona played in four FIFA World Cups, including the 1986 World Cup where he captained Argentina and led them to victory over West Germany in the final, and won the Golden Ball award as the tournament's best player. In that same tournament's quarterfinal, he scored both goals in a 2–1 victory over England that entered football history, though for two different reasons. The first goal was via an unpenalized handball known as the "Hand of God", while the second goal followed a 60 m (66 yd) dribble past five England players, voted "The Goal of the Century" by FIFA.com voters in 2002 Many experts, football critics, former players, current players and football fans regard Maradona as the best football player of all time. [2][3][4][5]He was joint FIFA Player of the 20th Century with Pelé. SOURCES: [1] "The history of the world transfer record". BBC News. [2] The Best of The Best". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation.com (19 June 2009). [3]– "The 100 greatest players of all time" The Football Pantheon, [4] – "Castrol Debate: Pele Versus Maradona". goal.com, 23 October 2010 [5]– "Lionel Messi: Diego Maradona is the greatest of all-time". SoccerAnchor, 7 September 2011 Club Record Years Team Apps Goals 1976–1981 Argentinos Juniors 167 115 1981–1982 Boca Juniors 40 28 1982–1984 Barcelona 36 22 1984–1991 Napoli 188 81 1992–1993 Sevilla 26 5 1993–1994 Newell's Old Boys 7 0 1995–1997 Boca Juniors 30 7 Total 494 258 National Team Years Team Apps Goals 1977–1994 Argentina 91 34 Honours Team Honours Team Trophy Years Argentina World Champion 1986 Napoli UEFA-Cup 1989 Napoli Italian Championship 1987, 1990 Napoli Italian Cup 1987 Napoli Italian Super Cup 1991 Barcelona Spanish Cup 1983 Barcelona Spanish League Cup 1982 Barcelona Spanish Super Cup 1983 Boca Juniors Argentinean Championship 1981 Individual Honours Trophy Years South American Footballer of the Year 1979, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1992 FIFA Player of the Century FIFA Goal of the Century (1986 (2–1) v. England; second goal): 2002 Golden Ball for Best Player of the FIFA World Cup 1986 4. Lionel Messi, he has won 4 Ballon D'ors twice as many as CR7. And I don't have enough character limit to list his acheivements. Anyway the conclusion is CR7 does not consider himself the greatest, he is not very young, he is 29, Messi is younger than him and already has won more accolades than Cristiano. CRISTIANO IS A GOOD PLAYER, but definitely not the best.