FX-Ray Project: Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo Award

Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the most charismatic players in football’s modern history, maybe the greatest that ever stepped his foot in football fields. Through this research, it will be identified which was Ronaldo’s most productive year, by taking into consideration specific standards.

In order to reach at safe conclusions, two specific parameters need to be considered:

• The first one is his individual goals and assists per game minutes, for realizing his executive excellence and his ability to create scoring opportunities for his teammates. In this way, statistical failures such as booking penalties or absences because of injuries during each season will be avoided.

• The second one will be his percentage influence in the game style, so as to understand how crucial Ronaldo’s presence is for his team.

This information will extract the result about which season the Portuguese star was the most productive player both for himself and his team on the whole.

In this graph, it is shown Ronaldo’s scoring frequency in Manchester United. It is worth to mention that Cristiano, for six years in Manchester, was used from Sir Alex Fergusson as right winger (RW) in 4-3-3 formation. Although he was not in Center Forward (CF) position, his scoring instinct was improved year by year. In 2006, Ronaldo scored more than 10 goals for the first time in his career. In 2008, he managed to score the biggest number of goals (until then) as a professional player, by scoring 42 goals. His goal average was 0.86 per 90’, which wasn’t something usual in football that time. In overall, he scored 118 goals for United.

Ronaldo had turned into an assist artist as well, by passing in incredible rhythm. At his fourth year, he succeeded in serving 20 goals. He managed to succeed double digits in goals and assists twice in 2007 and 2009. In these 2 seasons, he contributed to the 34% of Manchester United’s total goals. Subsequently, in 2008, he scored or assisted 50 from 110 goals of his team, which means that his efficiency was 45%.

Ronaldo’s stats in Manchester United show how important player was for his team. Between 2003 and 2009, he participated in 27,50% of United’s goals, he won 11 titles and 2 individual awards. As it was referred before, these numbers seemed unapproachable in the past.

However, Ronaldo succeeded to score almost a goal per game in each season for Real Madrid. This situation turned into habit for the Portuguese. The major reason was his displacement on the left side of the attack, which made him to converge into the opposite box more frequently. Another reason was the consecutive change of position with Karim Benzema in CF position during the matches. Ronaldo’s scoring opportunities were multiplied as he was more often into the opponent keeper’s box. That’s how his scoring ability was developed so rapidly, but the key word in this case is the duration.

In addition, it is important to mention that there is no season in Madrid for Ronaldo in single digits in goals or assists. In comparison with his personal stats in England, Ronaldo’s numbers in Spain are extremely elevated. Especially when it comes to the assists, it is easy to understand that Ronaldo needs at least 3 games for serving a goal to any of his teammates.

The efficiency he has in Real Madrid’s game is unprecedented. In six of his eight seasons in Spain, Ronaldo’s contribution in Real’s goals has surpassed 40%. To make it more accurate, in 2015, he contributed in 83 of the 154 goals that Real Madrid scored, which means that his efficiency was almost 54%!

The overall contribution of Ronaldo for “Meringues” was 406 goals and 125 assists during his eight-year stay in “Santiago Bernabeu”. Real Madrid has scored 1242 goals in all competitions participated until the season 2016-17, since Ronaldo’s arrival in Spain, and he has offered 531 goals to his team, which is the 43% of his team’s goals. This percentage would be much higher if he didn’t undergo a small drop in 2017(31% contribution).

At his first six seasons in Spain, he scored more (313 goals for Real Madrid – 118 goals for Manchester United), assisted more (208 assists for Real Madrid – 61 assists for Manchester United) and won the Ballon D’Or 3 times. His achievements with Real Madrid’s jersey cannot be compared. Not because of the titles, but because of the top class stability of his performances.

By setting in order all the seasons in which Ronaldo stands at the top football level, it is perceived that his most productive season took place in 2014-15, when he scored or assisted 54% of Real Madrid’s total goals (61 goals, 22 assists). The paradox is that he only achieved the European Golden Shoe (the Ballon D’or went to Lionel Messi) and his team won only 2 of the 6 estimated titles, but that season still remains, individually, the best in his football career.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Nielsen. (n.d.). Retrieved September 16, 2017, from espnfc: http://www.espnfc.com/club/real-madrid/86/statistics/scorers?leagueId=all&season

Real Madrid. (2017, September 2017). Retrieved September 16, 2017, from Real Madrid: http://www.realmadrid.com/en/football/squad/cristiano-ronaldo-dos-santos

Transfermarkt GmbH & Co. KG. (2017, September 16). Retrieved September 16, 2017, from Transfermarkt: https://www.transfermarkt.com/cristiano-ronaldo/leistungsdaten/spieler/8198/plus/1?saison=ges

UEFA. (2017, September 16). Retrieved September 16, 2017, from UEFA: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2010/index.html

Who Scored. (2017, September 2017). Retrieved September 16, 2017, from Who Scored: https://www.whoscored.com/Players/5583/Show/Cristiano-Ronaldo

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