C.Ronaldo Turns 33 ! How About We Judge Some Football Legends By What They Were at 32 ?

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So this post is Seventeen days late but, Earlier this Month the legendary Cristiano Ronlado turned 33.

Rather than going through the apparently-endless list of trophies, awards, and records he accumulated throughout his illustrious career, I thought of doing something different.
Seeing how many, many people, especially here on Quora, seem to judge Ronaldo’s overall greatness and completeness as a player by what he is at 32 years of age (and underestimate him at that), saying that he’s “just a goalscorer” or, even worse, “just a poacher”, I thought : What conclusions would we reach applying this same logic to several past legends ?
To know the answer, we will of course need to know what said legends were at that age, which is what I will try to show next.

  • Pele (Born October 1940) - 1972 :
    • Retired internationally.
    • Finished the league with 9 goals in 20 games (far from his overall league average of 1.14 goal/game).
    • Didn’t participate in Copa Libertadores.
    • Finished the season with 14 goals in 36 games.
  • Johan Cruyff (Born April 1947) - 1979 :
    • Retired internationally.
    • Was playing in the North America Soccer League.
    • His last league title 5 years behind him, his last European Cup title 6 years behind him, his last Ballon d’Or top 3 finish 4 years behind him.
  • Diego Maradona (Born October 1960) - 1992 :
    • In the midst of a 15-month ban from football for failing a drug test.
    • His peak years with Napoli and Argentina behind him.
  • Brazilian Ronaldo (Born September 1976) - 2008 :
    • Retired internationally.
    • Suffered yet another severe knee injury in February of that year, ending his season with Milan after just playing just 6 games.
    • Didn’t return to play football until 2009, with Corinthians.
    • Even before his injury, his peak years were well past him, as the last season he finished with 20+ goals was the 04/05 season.
  • Cristiano Ronaldo (Born February 1985) - 2017 :
    • Scored 11 goals in 11 games for his national team.
    • Finished the season (16/17) with 40+ goals for the 7th season in a row.
    • Finished the year with 50+ goals for a record 7th year in a row.
    • Finished the year with the same goal+assist/game as Lionel Messi, an all-time great (obviously).
    • Was the Champions League top goalscorer for a record 6th time and a record 5th consecutive time.
    • Finished the year with a record total of 19 UCL goals, scoring more UCL goals than 31 out of 35 teams that participated in the competition that year.
    • Had the best, most decisive UCL KO stage campaign ever, scoring a record 10 goals in the KO stages, all coming from the quarter final onward, against Bayern, Atletico, and Juventus
    • Led his team to the league title and a historic 2nd Champions League in a row.
    • Won his 5th Ballon d’Or (joint record), his 3rd FIFA best player award (joint record), and his 3 UEFA player of the year award (record).
    • Didn’t dribble much, though.
Source: Ahmad Al-Jamea on Quora 

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