TheFootballBlog.co.uk

Cristiano Ronaldo is the best, and also the most important, footballer in the world. Cristiano Ronaldo is the player who is going to save football.

Football is a whole new ball game compared to when I started watching it in 1989, and I was beginning to lose interest in it. Football has lost its soul. The money-men rule the game now, to a much higher degree than they did then. We fans have always been at the bottom of their list of priorities, but at least the player, and therefore the matches, and therefore the results, were pure and honest. Ish.

Tevez to Man Utd? Manu Utd, Man City, Chelsea and Villa owned by Foreigners? Players poncing around, ruling the roost, diving, cheating, whinging? (Let me clarify this. I’, not against a passionate, heart-on-his-sleeve player bending laws to gain an advantage for the club he loves. But a lot of the biggest cheats and whingers are fly-by-nights who only cheat to guarantee their win bonus.) I fell in love with the game standing in a decrepit, crumbling ’stadium’, watched 10 idiots on £500 quid a week try to hoof the ball up to a brilliant, but overweight, Scouser. (Maybe I’m being harsh on some of the Newcastle players. Wayne Fereday could only have been on £350 a week.) It was awful, but at least we has a bond, an affinity with the 10 muppets and Fatty Balatty. That’s just not there any longer.

I’ve moved away from Newcastle, so I don’t get to see that much football ‘in the flesh’. Newcastle, although light years ahead of where we were in ‘89, are probably further away from winning the league now than we were then. So maybe it’s just me. Maybe everyone is still in to the game as much as when they first went. But I’ve asked other fans, and that’s not the case. The whole football experience is ’slicker’. The skill level is higher. The influx of foreign players has led to a more dynamic style of football. But in the ‘parlance’ of the moneymen the ‘product’ is not as satisfying. Our current fat Aussie centre forward maybe 10 times as good as our fat Scouser one from 19 years ago, but I know which one I’ll be nostalgic about in another 19 years.

But, all is not doom and gloom. Keegan has got me watching Newcastle again. And - lo and behold - I’ve even started taking an interest in ‘how the other half live’ - watching the title race and even the Champions League. The reason? Cristiano Ronaldo. I want to see what he is going to do next. To see just how good he can become.

So how good can he become? Some players; Zola, Law, Beardsley, Greaves were capable of scoring goals like the back heel against Villa. Some players ; Shearer, Ferdinand, Bryan Robson, scored goals like the header against Roma. Some players; Andy Cole, van Nistelrooy, Romario scored 35 - 40 goals in a season. Ronaldo is all of the above, and more. My Dad reckons the comparison with George Best are well justified.

So thank you, Cristiano Ronaldo, thank you. The money man have taken a lot out of football. You have reminded us that it’s still all about the magic that can be created by one man at the top of his game.