Cristiano Ronaldo's reinvention: One of the greatest of all time despite declining statistics

Comparisons, as Miguel Cervantes correctly asserted, may well be odious but they are ‘Nirvana’ to football’s statistics and information gatherers currently working overtime as Cristiano Ronaldo hones in on the all time league goal scoring record.

Has he reached 400 goals in the colours of Real Madrid, or is it as many say 399? Can we count his free kick strike in Real Madrid’s 2-1 victory over Real Sociedad or was it deflected in off Pepe? On such minutiae, friendships founder, families fall out. More importantly, does it matter?

As if the experts didn’t have enough data to work on with the constant comparisons that sally back and forth between Cristiano and his main rival for football lovers’ affection, Leo Messi, now the names of former greats, Gerd Muller and Jimmy Greaves, once again enter the spotlight they adorned with such distinction in the past.

And the problem is of course with facts, figures, stats and records is that very often they depend on the criteria you work with and - depending on who you believe - Cristiano is already the greatest scorer in League football history and not as the stat men would have it, one behind Das Bomber (Gerd Muller) and two short of Jimmy Greaves.

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The five leagues that qualify as 'top’ apparently - and might I add at this point, says who? - are in Spain, England, Italy, Germany and France and not in Portugal where Cristiano scored three goals for Sporting before his move to Manchester United, goals that would already have seen him lauded as the number one scorer in league history.

This is one stat that will certainly provoke puzzled disbelief from a league that has, in Porto and Benfica, historically two of soccer’s great sides and a country that, lest we forget, currently holds the European Championship. But I digress.

What is most important is that in goal scoring terms at least, Cristiano and Messi and Greaves and Muller are/were the best - the very, very best - and to make comparisons between one and the other bearing in mind they played in different times, in different conditions, on different surfaces with different equipment and a different approach to the rule book is ultimately to demean their greatness.

A while back I incurred the wrath of Ronaldo fans across the world when I said he had declined physically. The reason I said it was simple - he had.

A chronic knee injury - and I use the word in it’s literal meaning which describes an illness or medical condition characterized by long duration or frequent recurrence - meant that he no longer had the blistering pace that would regularly destroy defences. And he knew it.

I never said he would stop scoring and in fact it was the nature of the injury that compelled him to re-invent himself purely as a striker and bring him in from the flanks. He lost his speed, his electric bursts of pace and replaced them with even more of what he already had in abundance. A voracious hunger, an unceasing desire to be the best and a competitiveness and dedication to adapting to his new role.

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As he says himself, “With dedication and hard work things happen naturally”, to which I might add that if it was that easy then we’d all do it.

In the process he realised that to become the greatest striker in the world - and there is no greater at the moment - he has even strived to change his body shape to make him even more lethal in and around the penalty area.

He is now around three kilos lighter, has less muscle development on his top half but has increased his muscle power and strength in his legs in his transformation purely as a striker. He has also for the first time realised that as the sands of time begin to run, then sometimes less is more and so consequently is far more prepared to be rotated and/or occasionaly substituted by Zinadine Zidane who he clearly trusts implicitly.

At a time when many players of his age - Ronaldo is 32, and a battered and bruised 32 at that - are looking towards retirement, media work, cameo appearances and perhaps a bit of coaching, he will be hoping to plot the downfall of probably the likes of Giorgio Chiellini and Leonard Bonucci as Real and Juventus makes their almost inevitable journeys to Wales for the Champions League final next month.

Real Madrid’s third final in four years and one that should they win will make them the first side since the tournament changed into the Champions League format to win the trophy in successive years. Meanwhile, Ronaldo, who has scored 50 goals or more every season at Real, has got the worst stats of this time at Real ('only' 35 goals) but he has scored more goals than ever from the quarter finals of the Champions League. Another proof of his re-invention.

The hunger and motivation that forced the change comes from a desire and a motivation to be the very best and a psychological toughness that is difficult to fathom but probably has its roots in the tough lonely road both he and Messi trod on their way to the very top.

It there are to be comparisons made about the relative greatness of the four players then it is in this psychological department that we should pay most attention. As mere boys both Messi and Cristiano climbed aboard boat, trains and planes in search of their fortune while the likelihood is that players like Greaves and Muller used to go home to their Mums for tea after training with their local clubs.

Much against his better judgment Greaves did take the plunge and travelled aboard although, in truth, he never wanted to go and did his level best to get out of the deal. He hated every minute of his stay with AC Milan.

Muller to be fair had more success on the road in the twilight of his career though at a much lower level scoring a goal every two games over three seasons with Fort Lauderdale in the USA

Both Greaves and Muller succumbed for whatever reason to the demon drink post-playing and both are now in poor health. Greaves suffered a severe stroke in 2015 and is now looked after at home by those who love him now as they have always done.

In 2015 Bayern Munich chairman Karl Heniz Rummenigge confirmed that Muller had been diagnosed with Alzeimer’s disease adding by way of tribute that: “Gerd Müller is one of the all-time greats of world football. Without his goals, Bayern Munich and German football would not be what it is today.

“He was a fantastic team-mate and is a friend. Gerd will always enjoy a place in the Bayern family.

And when the cheering, the success and the adulation stopped, the drink and depression kicked in. Thankfully both despite poor health, gained redemption.

We live in a different world today. Players have more therapists, counsellors, advisors, assistants, coaches, trainers and general Svengali’s than you could shake a stick at. But even accounting for that, the impression that the likes of Crisitiano and Messi spend their life cushioned and protected from the outside world is illusory.

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The fact is they are probably mentally, and certainly financially, better prepared to deal with the pressures that will come with facing the end of the road than perhaps Gerd and Jimmy were but only time will tell us how they will cope with retirement when it comes along.

But ignoring comparisons, tinder dry statistics, and boring facts that never really tell it like it is or was, I’m reminded by what I once heard the brilliant radio and television presenter and football nut, Danny Baker say which, for me, kind of sums it all up.

"The thing about great players is that what makes them great is that when you watch them play, they make you gasp,” he said.

And when we are pulling mere numbers, sterile figures, impersonal stats out of the air to justify our arguments this is what we should remember above everything else. When Cristiano and Messi play, as when Greaves and Muller played we all gasped as they showed us, week in week out, just why we love - and occasionally hate - this magnificently flawed game so much.