This morning the Portuguese negotiator was quoted by Expresso as claiming that his client Cristiano Ronaldo is the "greatest player in the history of football”.

“I think that it is thanks to his speed, his great technique and his power in the air. People will agree with me over time," he explained.

Now we all know that most agents will say anything to spark a bit of publicity for their puppies. Potential sponsors who know nothing about football will see the headline "CR7=t3h be5t" and come to Ronaldo with open cheque-books hoping for endorsements. Some will argue that Mendes' comments are to be ignored as they are strictly business-related.

However, for the uninformed football fans and readers out there - especially the younger audience - it is important to stress just how ludicrous Mendes' quotes are.

Best player debates always cause controversy. As Goal.com's Kris Voakes moaned a few weeks back: "In a sport which is so intrinsically team-based, why oh why people need to pick the bones out of everything Player X does in comparison to Player Y, heaven only knows. And some like to then break down the merits of footballers over a period of up to half a century and decide that Player Q is actually better than either X or Y. But one of the best things about football is that it generates such a vast array of opinions, and the ‘greatest player in the world’ debate is just another topic for people to get their teeth into, so who am I to stop them?"

And you won't stop me Kris.

Below, there are 100 players I managed to compile in less than an hour who I believe are better players over the course of history than Cristiano Ronaldo - when weighing up individual ability and success. Due to the shortage of obtainable 90-minute footage prior to 1960, players from the 1950s and earlier were not considered in this list. There are also many others, particularly South American-based stars such as Alberto Spencer, who could be regarded superior to Ronaldo but would take too much space to justify.

Ronaldo is not in the Top 3 Portuguese players of all time yet, and he is not even in the top 100 players of the last 50 years. Care to argue about it Jorge? I will gladly debate it with you!

<strong>Argentina</strong>


<strong>Cristiano Ronaldo better than Maradona?</strong>

Lionel Messi
Javier Zanetti
Diego Maradona
Daniel Passarella
Mario Kempes
Omar Sivori
Alfredo Di Stefano
<strong>
Brazil</strong>

<strong>
Better than Pele?</strong>

Lucio
Ronaldinho
Cafu
Ronaldo
Rivaldo
Romario
Zico
Falcao
Junior
Rivelino
Jairzinho
Gerson
Tostao
Pele
Djalma Santos
Garrincha
Jose Altafini
Nilton Santos
Didi
Zito
<strong>
Bulgaria</strong>

Hristo Stoichkov

<strong>Czech Republic</strong>

Pavel Nedved

<strong>Denmark</strong>

Michael Laudrup
Allan Simonsen

<strong>England</strong>

Bobby Charlton
Bobby Moore
Gordon Banks

<strong>France</strong>


Better than Zidane?

Zinedine Zidane
Lilian Thuram
Marcel Desailly
Michel Platini
Jean Tigana
Alain Giresse
<strong>
Germany</strong>

<strong>Better than Beckenbauer?</strong>

Juergen Kohler
Lothar Matthaus
Andreas Brehme
Rudi Voeller
Karl Heinz Rummenigge
Uli Stielike
Rainer Bonhof
Paul Breitner
Franz Beckenbauer
Gunter Netzer
Wolfgang Overath
Gerd Muller
Karl-Heinz Schnellinger
Uwe Seeler

<strong>Hungary</strong>

Florian Albert
Ferenc Puskas
Sandor Kocsis

<strong>Better than Maldini?</strong>

Gianluigi Buffon
Fabio Cannavaro
Alessandro Nesta
Paolo Maldini
Giuseppe Bergomi
Roberto Baggio
Franco Baresi
Roberto Donadoni
Antonio Cabrini
Gaetano Scirea
Dino Zoff
Claudio Gentile
Giacinto Facchetti
Sandro Mazzola
Luigi Riva
Gianni Rivera
<strong>
Mexico</strong>

Hugo Sanchez

<strong>Netherlands</strong>

<strong>
Better than Cruyff?</strong>

Edgar Davids
Frank Rijkaard
Ruud Gullit
Marco van Basten
Ruud Krol
Johan Neeskens
Johan Cruyff

<strong>Northern Ireland</strong>

George Best

<strong>Poland</strong>

Kazimierz Deyna
Grzegorz Lato

<strong>Portugal</strong>

<strong>
Better than Eusebio and Mueller?</strong>

Luis Figo
Eusebio
Mario Coluna

<strong>Peru</strong>

Teofilo Cubillas
<strong>
Scotland</strong>

Kenny Dalglish
Jimmy Johnstone

<strong>Soviet Union</strong>

Oleg Blokhin
Albert Shesternyov
Lev Yashin
Igor Netto

<strong>Spain</strong>

Xavi
Andres Iniesta
Francisco Gento
Luis Suarez
<strong>
Yugoslavia
</strong>
Dejan Savicevic
Dragan Dzajic

C.Ronaldo is not among the 10 best players in the last 10 years talkess of giving him the title of the best of all time.
Messi is better than him now and we have many great players that are better than him.
There are many sites that have compared the best football players of all time and we are yet to see C.Ronaldo there.
Below is one of such list.
http://www.rascojet.com/blog/index.php/2011/01/10-best-soccer-players-of-all-time/

although cristiano ronaldo is not the greatest of all time but those 100 players are certainly not better than him. in the last decade i can only mention 5 players that are better than him namely
Ronaldinho,messi,zidane,ronaldo and maybe baggio which is arguable