Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the most underrated dribblers of our generation.

He’s thought of as a goalscoring box player, but this isn’t the case.

A quick thread with the stats that prove this - any likes & shares greatly appreciated.

In November of 2019 Squawka released this image from official Opta stats showing successful take ons since 06/07.

Messi has a phenomenal 50% more than the next highest player.

Ronaldo ended up 5th, however this is a greater achievement than it seems...

You can also see that every player in the top 10 dribblers since records began is 5’11 or under - except Ronaldo who is 6’2.

I decided to investigate the relationship between height and successful take ons. Here is what I found:

Messi, Hazard and Ronaldo are the outliers, all overperform the expected take-ons for a player of their height.

With more context: Hazard is 3 years younger than Messi, so with age consideration Hazard may over-perform his expected dribbles at a closer rate to Messi.

Ronaldo’s dribbling record improves once again with even more context. This resource includes the time when Ronaldo has been utilised as as a target man as well as when he was a more creative winger.

Look at how his dribbles per game have dropped in the league since 13/14:

In comparison, Messi and Hazard have always been utilised in a more creative role and system, Ronaldo has only been in that role up until 13/14 for 7/14 total seasons.

If the resource was made in 13/14, Ronaldo would exceed his take on per height at an even greater rate.

In conclusion, CR7’s dribbling is severely underrated. When you consider his height he’s the best dribbler over 5’11 in recorded history, and despite playing as a target man for half of his career he still registers as an anomaly above the best dribblers.