Proving once and for all that Cristiano Ronaldo is the best big game player ever. Didn’t think this was a debate but oh well.

[A THREAD]

Firstly, let’s address the criteria.

I will count the following as big games:

- Champions league KO stages
- Domestic cup finals (FA Cup, Copa del Rey, Coppa Italia)
- League deciding games
- Major international tournaments
- Club World Cup Finals

So let’s start. In Champions league KO stages, Ronaldo is BY FAR the best player ever. He has the most goals, most assists, and by some distance the most G/A per minutes.

Ronaldo requires 88.5 minutes to score or assist in a UCL KO game. The closest person to him in that aspect is Luis Suarez who requires 99.5 minutes to do the same, and then Lionel Messi who requires 101.3.

Now, sometimes teams that play in the Round of 16 of the Champions League aren’t very good, so one might think Ronaldo scored most of his goals there and doesn’t do much later on.

However, this is very far from the truth.

Although this graphic is a little outdated, as Ronaldo now has 42 and Messi 20 goals from the Quarter-finals to finals, it still shows the huge gap between Ronaldo and the second place.

Ronaldo even has more goals than number 2 and 3 put together.

Now, let’s check out UCL Finals, some of the biggest games there are in all of football. This graphic shows Ronaldo is the top UCL final scorer of all time with 4 goals. He is also the only person to score in three (3) UCL finals.

Ronaldo also has an assist in a UCL final which makes it 5 G/A in this stage of the competition.

The next two players in this category are:
Gareth Bale - 3 goals 1 assist
Marcelo - 1 goal 3 assists

There are also some players with 3 G/A in UCL finals.

Now on to domestic cup finals, included here are:
FA Cup, Copa del Rey, Coppa Italia.

Ronaldo stats in domestic cup finals:

3 games
3 goals
2 match winning goals

One of these goals came vs one of the best football teams ever assembled, 2010/11 Barcelona. Ronaldo opened the scoring with a stunning header in Extra Time and won Real Madrid the Copa del Rey.

Now let’s look at Club World Cup finals.

Ronaldo is the all time CWC top scorer, and also the top scorer in finals.

Ronaldo’s CWC final stats:

4 games
4 goals
1 assist
2 game winning goals
1 game winning assist

Now, league winning games.

Ronaldo has single-handedly won the league for Real Madrid twice.

In 2011/12 he silenced the Camp Nou with the famous “calma calma” shattering Barcelona’s title hopes. In 2016/17 in a must-win last matchday game vs Malaga, Ronaldo scored the winner.

Moving on to the international stage. Cristiano Ronaldo has saved Portugal on countless occasions. Today I will put this into stats.

The general notion is that Ronaldo for Portugal statpads vs bad teams and gets carried in tournaments. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Ronaldo stats in international tournaments:

42 games
21 goals
11 assists.

People say he only scores vs bad teams in tournaments, let’s see if this is true.

Stats against top 10 teams in FIFA Ranking in tournaments:

19 games
10 goals
4 assists.

These are amazing numbers, to put them into perspective, Lionel Messi, the second best player of our generation’s record against top 10 teams is as follows:

0 goals 3 assists.

Ronaldo also has 10 KO G/A in international tournaments and all of them were important.

Euro 2004: 1 goal 1 assist vs Netherlands in a 2-1 Semi-Finalwin (T10 team)
Euro 2008: assist vs Germany in a 2-3 QF loss (T10 team)
Euro 2012: goal vs Czech Rep. in a 1-0 QF win (T10 team)

Euro 2016:
- 1 assist vs Croatia in a 1-0 RO16 win. (Winning assist)
- 1 goal 1 assist vs Wales in a 2-0 Semi-Final win. (Winning goal)

Not to mention the times Ronaldo saved Portugal in group stages and qualifiers. (See next tweet)

Portugal vs Hungary: Euro 2016 group stage, a game they had to draw to go on to the KO stage. Ronaldo comes up clutch with 2 goals and 1 assist to push Portugal through to the KO stage.

Portugal v Sweden: WCQ 2014. Ronaldo scores a hattrick v Sweden to send Portugal to the WC.

Euro 2012: Portugal needs a win vs Netherlands to progress to KO. Ronaldo comes up clutch with 2 goals to send them there

WC 2018: Portugal needs a good start to the World Cup and they’re facing Spain. Ronaldo takes matters into his own hands and scores a hattrick.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s UCL dominance, clutchness for Portugal, and winning Real Madrid the league on 2 different occasions prove that he is indeed the greatest big game player of all time. Likes and RTs appreciated.

END OF THREAD.