You could argue Messi is more of a spearhead now but again for the most part he is not a "striker" as we understand the word. All three of them appear in the advanced part of the pitch charged by their teams with scoring and assisting goals. So, they are all great attacking players but there is a clear drop off here. Apart from four years at Barcelona, Neymar has played flat track bully in the Brazilian and French leagues against mediocre defenders and still produced numbers significantly lower than Ronaldo and Messi.
You can only imagine the numbers the latter two would have if they had spent their careers there. Ronaldo in particular deserves credit for continuing to put up ridiculous numbers for Juventus at the age of 36 in the Italian Serie A, a league notorious for tactical excellence and defensive resilience. He also dominated at Man United in his early career in the toughest league in the world. Despite the endless excuses his fanboys will make up, numbers wise the Brazilian just doesn't match up to his two greatest peers.
He was touted as the future best player in the world when he left Barcelona to strike out on his own, but the reality is, in a mediocre league, as part of a project throwing money at endless players and giving him every possible platform to achieve, he hasn't won the Ballon d'Or and probably never will.
There are too many players who are better than him. When discussing the best players in the world, one of the more controversial topics is always international performance. You can't chose your country and you can't blame Robert Lewandowski for not winning a World Cup with Poland.
It can however still be an interesting metric and this is one where Ronaldo certainly leads the pack. He's scored goals in appearances for the nation he captains, helping them to win the Euros and the UEFA Nations League along the way. Portugal may now be producing a litany of fantastic players but for large parts of his career, they were barely a top 10 outfit.
Messi, on the other hand, has underperformed and achieved nothing for a far superior Argentina side boasting the likes of Javier Mascherano, Kun Aguero, and Angel Di Maria, scoring 71 goals in appearances. Goals aren't everything and it's presence and leadership the Barcelona great has lacked on the big stage for his country. Then there is Neymar. With Brazil, it's been disappointment after disappointment.
He's scored 64 goals in games, which actually gives him the best goals to games average of the three. But to win at international level, you need character.
His leadership quality is polar opposite to CR7 who drags his team through games with pure grit. Neymar actually makes his teams worse by effectively reducing them to 10 men when in defensive scenarios. His attitude and work rate are so poor. He can hardly be blamed for getting injured in their World Cup Quarter Final win over Colombia, and subsequent hiding at the hands of Germany in the next round, but one way or another he has always failed to deliver.
Then there was the last World Cup in , when his hilarious play acting dive made him an global meme. He produced two goals, had no real effect, and Brazil crashed out in the quarters against Belgium.
Such is Neymar's lack of impact for the Brazilian national team, some were pleased he was ruled out of their Copa America squad due to injury, a tournament they went on win as a much more cohesive and efficient team, not weighed down by Neymar's ego and lack of interest in running.
For a man so often referred to as "the best" or "one of the best" players in the world by the type of casual football fan which the European Super League project actually appealed to, the question must be asked: is he even the best player at PSG?
At only 22 years of age, Mbappe already has a better goals to games average with goals in games. That's with playing his whole career in Ligue 1, which while mediocre compared to the Premier League, La Liga or Serie A, is still far more challenging than the Brazilian top flight, where Neymar racked up nearly half his goals. Again, if you believe he's a midfielder and goals analysis is irrelevant, it is safe to say this article isn't for you.
The French wonderkid, at the beginning of what should be a remarkable career, has already starred in a World Cup winning squad. It could be argued that France had a marginally better squad than any which Neymar has played in for Brazil, but they are not light years ahead. If Neymar was a leader and not an individual, he could have led his country to great things. It is with a heavy heart that we must accept that Neymar is a good player but he is indeed overrated. A good player? Perhaps top 50 of all time?
One of the very best to ever do it? He can bang in the goals when the going is good, he can bully weaker opposition, he can do a few tricks, but the truly greatest players carry their teams to big trophies, they know how to get it done when it counts, their teammates can look to them for inspiration. PSG's latest European exit at the hands of Manchester City and his conduct during the match, acting like a spoiled child when things didn't go his way, may have finally woken many up to just how overrated Neymar is.
His toxic body language influences those around him. With him at the club, there is very little doubt that France will not be welcoming home any UCL winners any time soon. He doesn't have the character to be "the man", which apparently was what he left Barcelona to become. You can watch every Ligue 1 match this season with Bet on their live streaming service completely free. The idea continues to split opinions within the board, the squad and the fans.
Below are three reasons why they could be right:. Neymar is past his peak : It's obvious that the Brazilian has fallen off the standard that earned him his world-record move to PSG in He's been struggling to reach his normal heights since then, with the likes of Kylian Mbappe , Eden Hazard and Luka Modric all leaving him behind.
He's injury-prone : The winger's recent injury record calls for concern.
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