Where does Cristiano Ronaldo rank amongst the greatest Forwards?

Please leave your bias at the door. Where would you put Cristiano with respect to all the other elite forwards over the last, let's say decade? And after that where would you rank him when compared to the greats?

So compared to the likes of R9, Henry, Ibrahimovic, Del Piero etc where would you rank him?

It's hard for me to put him amongst the greatest because he is playing as a wing striker and only focuses on scoring... if he was a CF and he brought the extra skills he does to the position, then ok.  But he's not.  He doesn't defend, his passing is average and his tactical awareness is suspect.

He's the Gerd Muller of wing strikers imo... incredible stats, but very much a specialist which puts the better rounded greats above him.

Being Gerd Muller is great too btw lol.

He's the best forward in the last 20 after R9 and Messi. Let alone the nostalgia because he's better than the likes of Henry, ADP, Batistuta etc. The man has everything a forwadr could wish for.

Among the very best. but it's hard to do comparison when there's so many players I haven't seen. For me, he is only behind messi among the player I have seen. And at the same place at the original ronaldo who I consider more dangerous with the ball at his feet but not as tactically efficient.

What does "tactically efficient" mean?

I admit it is a made up term. I mean the hability to run to space when you are more like to get the pass and get a shot, and the tactical awareness to be in the right places to get goal scoring chances.

Basically, movement without the ball.

Dont see any real difference. The Ronaldo of Madrid yeah sure, but the actual Ronaldo. No difference.

well, I spoke of the players i have seen, and because of my age I only saw the old ronaldo of madrid. Though it is also important to take in consideration that the current ronaldo has stayed longer at top form. The fat ronaldo had injuries that set him back and because of that his top form didn't last as much. That for me makes the current ronaldo's carreer more impressive

Ronaldo was good enough, for long enough to win 2 world cups and it probably would of been 3 if not for what happened in 98'.

edit : I should qualify this by saying he didnt really feature in the 1st one (94') but still you get the point.

Add in his peak level compared to Cristiano, for me its not even close.

well to win a world cup is a team accomplishment. I think any of the current best players of the world would have been able to win the world cup too if they were in those brazil team.

Sure it is, but did you see his performances in that 2002 world cup? Devastating.

What others players in theory might of done doesn't really matter. What matters is what he did and how he did it.

Yes the team was great, but look at the games, he was still dominant, even if not quite his 98 self.

He scored the only two goals in the Germany final, scored the single winning goal vs Turkey in the Semi and killed of the Belgium game in the round of 16. All to the tune of top scorer in the tournament with 8 goals. Next closest was 5.

And not to mention, he is the all time leading scorer in world cup history.

Ronaldo was better in 98 than in 2002.

Goes without saying. Though I did already say it.

I wouldn't rate Ronaldo as one of the best strikers.
I think Messi is the best of all time