Ronaldo v Zlatan
Whichever way you cut it, the 2014 World Cup in Brazil will be missing one of the finest players on the planet. Friday night's play-off game between Portugal and Sweden has become as much about Ronaldo versus Zlatan as it has the respective nations. Only one will make it to Rio...
Tuesday 19 November 2013 16:05, UK
Only one of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Cristiano Ronaldo will be at the World Cup. Who'll miss out?
Beginnings
Born to immigrant parents and growing up in the poor Rosengrad neighbourhood of Malmo, fame and fortune must have seemed a world away for the young Zlatan Ibrahimovic. But a talent for football soon became clear and he was a first-team player with Malmo by the age of 17. There was the disappointment of relegation in his first campaign as a professional but the rise since then has been inexorable. After making his international debut while still a teenager, a big-money move to Ajax followed within weeks and Zlatan was on the road to superstardom.
The story of Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro begins in the garden of the Atlantic in the coastal town of Madeira. Like many of the greats his was a humble start. The home he shared with his three siblings and parents was so shy of space it housed a washing machine on the roof. Expelled at 14 for throwing a chair at his teacher, a precociously gifted Ronaldo decided with his mother's blessing to dedicate his life to football thereafter. As bold decisions go, it proved to be pretty astute in hindsight. Promise shown at local clubs Andorinha and Nacional soon earned him a move to Sporting Lisbon in 2002 and the rest, as they say, is history.
Glory
Although Ibrahimovic is yet to taste Champions League success - despite reaching the knockout stages of the tournament on no fewer than 10 occasions - his record suggests that the big Swede is a true model of consistency. Zlatan deals in leagues not cups. During his stunning career, he has won 10 league titles (two were revoked as part of the Calciopoli scandal) for six different clubs in four different countries. As a general rule, over the course of a long season it is the team that has Ibra leading the line that wins the title.
Ronaldo said the desire to prove himself in another league was a major motivation behind his decision to leave Manchester United for Real Madrid and in this respect he's still got some work to do to catch up with continent-spanning serial winner Ibrahimovic. In four full seasons at Madrid he has won just the solitary title (2011/12) which, whisper it quietly, somewhat undermines the personal accolades bestowed upon him during his time in Spain. We'll likely never know how Zlatan would have done in England, but it's fair to say Ronaldo had the quite the impact on these fair shores. Three Premier League titles and a Champions League winners' medal is testimony to the fact Ronaldo can almost certainly do it on a wet and windy Tuesday night in Stoke.
Goals
Comfortably on course to reach the 20 goals benchmark for the eighth successive season, Ibrahimovic is now delivering for the seventh club of his career - proving that he can perform time and time again whatever the surroundings. The powerful frontman is nearing 300 club goals and it's not just about the volume either. Nobody can argue with the variety. Headers and tap-ins, long-range strikes and intricate dribbles, Ibrahimovic is capable of scoring every type of goal in the book... And more than a few that aren't. Karate kicking home crosses and lobbing goalkeepers with 40-yard scissor kicks are the preserve of Zlatan and Zlatan alone.
It was not until Ronaldo's fourth season at Manchester United that he broke the 20-goal barrier that has long-since been the gold standard all self-respecting strikers judge themselves against. These days it's a figure he looks to notch up before Christmas. In the past three seasons - for club and country - he has scored 50 (10/11), 66 (11/12) and 51 (12/13). His numbers for Madrid are frankly ridiculous: 225 goals in 216 appearances. Like Ibrahimovic, Ronaldo is capable of scoring all types of goals and it his ability in the air that arguably makes him an even more complete player than Lionel Messi.
International record
With a record of one goal every two games for Sweden, Ibrahimovic has been a reliable goalscorer for his country over the years and is closing in on Sven Rydell's national record set in 1932. It is a role the Paris St Germain star has grown into since assuming the captaincy with his recent international performances proving particularly spectacular. Since 2012, the year in which he was named in the Euro 2012 Team of the Tournament, he has scored 17 goals in 18 games for Sweden, including all four against England at the opening of the national stadium in Stockholm.
Considering Ronaldo spent much of his formative years playing wide right for his country, a record of 43 goals from 107 caps is quite the achievement. It is surely a matter of when not if he overtakes both Pedro Pauleta (47) and Luis Figo (127) in terms of goal and appearance records respectively. He has played in five major international tournaments; the first being Euro 2004, in which he helped Portugal to the final. Since 2008 he has worn the captain's armband, with his best showing coming in 2012 when he made the Team of the Tournament and finished as joint-top goalscorer as Portugal lost to Spain at the semi-final stage.
