This is part of a series of articles examining the impact of the five most expensive footballers. For an overview of the rules guiding this (unscientific) study and the players being examined, please see the introductory article.
One of the few players to have truly transcended the game of football, Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro is a sporting icon, a name and a face that is instantly recognisable, even by people who aren’t football fans (or fanatics). Considered by many to be one of the all-time greats of the sport, it’s unsurprising to see Ronaldo on this list. What may be surprising is the fact that, unlike Neymar or Lukaku, Ronaldo has only been involved in two big-money transfers.
Before getting into the transfers, I’d just like to say how big a shame it is that Messi spent most of his career at one club and in the two instances (so far) that he did move, it was on a free transfer. I knew Ronaldo was good, I just didn’t know how good he was before doing the analysis that was needed for this section. It would have been brilliant to do an apples-to-apples comparison with Messi.
Fun fact, Cristiano Ronaldo was named after actor and former US President Ronald Reagan.
Another fun fact, only 9 years separate the Portuguese Ronaldo (CR7) from O Fenômeno, the Brazilian Ronaldo (R9).
Ronaldo to Real Madrid (€94m): 2009 to 2018
Only a few months after Sir Alex Ferguson declared Real Madrid a mob, stating that he wouldn’t “sell them a virus,” Cristiano Ronaldo left Manchester United (for the first time). The €94m paid by Real Madrid stood as the highest-ever transfer fee paid for a player. It broke the previous record of €67m that Real Madrid paid AC Milan for Kaká only a couple of weeks before. (Real had a busy summer in 2009 as part of their second galácticos era.)
Yet another fun fact, Ronaldo (R9) was part of the first galácticos era.
We’ve already looked at the outcome of one world-record transfer, that of Neymar to PSG. Having seen how underwhelming, but still successful, that transfer turned out to be, let’s take a look at our second and final world-record transfer. (All other transfers that have been or will be examined took place post-Neymar, bar two.)
| Season | League Position | League Points (Max 114) |
|---|---|---|
| 2007/08 (without) | 1 | 85 |
| 2008/09 (without) | 2 | 78 |
| 2009/10 (with) | 2 | 96 |
| 2010/11 (with) | 2 | 92 |
| 2011/12 (with) | 1 | 100 |
| 2012/13 (with) | 2 | 85 |
| 2013/14 (with) | 3 | 87 |
| 2014/15 (with) | 2 | 92 |
| 2015/16 (with) | 2 | 90 |
| 2016/17 (with) | 1 | 93 |
| 2017/18 (with) | 3 | 76 |
| 2018/19 (without) | 3 | 68 |
| 2019/20 (without) | 1 | 87 |
| Avg. 86.85 |
Ronaldo was at Real Madrid for a while; three years more than Neymar spent at PSG and a little over twice as long as Neymar spent at Barcelona. Given that the average stay of players at clubs in Europe has been trending downwards (2.4 years in 2013 down to 2.25 years in 2022), are we likely to see a situation where players sign for blinding amounts of money before being sold on to other clubs within a relatively short time?
Or are we likely to see more and more situations where players are signed for huge fees, stay only for the duration of their contracts and then leave for free, as one Arsène Wenger predicted? (It’s happened, you know.)
So how did Real Madrid fare in the league during the 13-year evaluation period?
For a club as prestigious and well-regarded in the world of football as Real, they were surprisingly … mediocre? They won the league only four times in 13 seasons, twice with Ronaldo and twice without him. And they finished in third place thrice.
This, however, doesn’t seem to have been due to a lack of trying. Their title-winning tally in 2007/08 was 85 points. They only got fewer points in three of the subsequent twelve seasons: 78 in 2008/09, 76 in 2017/18 and 68 in 2018/19. In all the other seasons, including their third-place finish in 2013/14, they earned more points. Guess that’s what happens when you have something approaching a competitive league, right? (Looking at you, PSG.)
The highlight of this period was undoubtedly the record 100 points earned in 2011/12, a feat that would be equalled one season later by Barcelona.
While they didn’t win as many league titles, Real performed a lot better with Ronaldo in their team. The average points earned during the 9 seasons when Ronaldo was at Real stands at 90.11 versus 79.5 points without him. And the lowest points total came in the season immediately after Ronaldo left.
All of this seems to indicate that Ronaldo had an impact at Real. But just how big an impact was it?
| Season | Club League Goals | Goals | Assists1 | % Contribution2 | Match Winners3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007/08 (without) | 84 | 0 | 0 | 0.00% | 0 |
| 2008/09 (without) | 83 | 0 | 0 | 0.00% | 0 |
| 2009/10 (with) | 102 | 26 | 9 | 34.31% | 6 |
| 2010/11 (with) | 102 | 40 | 13 | 51.96% | 12 |
| 2011/12 (with) | 121 | 46 | 12 | 47.93% | 17 |
| 2012/13 (with) | 103 | 34 | 11 | 43.69% | 7 |
| 2013/14 (with) | 104 | 31 | 11 | 40.38% | 12 |
| 2014/15 (with) | 118 | 48 | 17 | 55.08% | 11 |
| 2015/16 (with) | 110 | 35 | 11 | 41.82% | 9 |
| 2016/17 (with) | 106 | 25 | 6 | 29.25% | 6 |
| 2017/18 (with) | 94 | 26 | 5 | 32.98% | 8 |
| 2018/19 (without) | 63 | 0 | 0 | 0.00% | 0 |
| 2019/20 (without) | 70 | 0 | 0 | 0.00% | 0 |
Again, I knew Ronaldo was good at Real. I just didn’t know how good he actually was until I saw these numbers.
For starters, goalscoring wasn’t exactly a problem that applied to Real, having scored 84 and 83 goals in the two seasons preceding Ronaldo’s arrival. (For comparison, look at the goalscoring records of Manchester United, Inter Milan and Chelsea.)
Yet, Ronaldo’s arrival instantly raised the bar. And once Ronaldo left, there was an instant drop-off in goals scored, with the end-season tallies of the two succeeding post-Ronaldo seasons coming in at 63 and 70 goals.
Over the course of the 9 seasons when Ronaldo was at the club, Real scored an average of 106.67 goals, with a high of 121 and a low of 94. Without Ronaldo in the team, that average dropped to 75 goals a season, a difference of about 29.7%.
The media would often talk about “Messidependencia”, the idea that Barcelona were dependent on Lionel Messi, in criticism of the club. But over at Real Madrid, the problem seemed to apply just as much to Ronaldo. On average, he contributed 42.29% of the team’s goals, which is absolutely bonkers if you think about it. Over the course of the 9 seasons, Real scored a total of 960 goals. Of these goals, Ronaldo either scored or assisted 406.
Looking at individual seasons, Ronaldo’s worst-performing seasons were his first and his last two at the club. And even then, he scored or assisted over 30 goals.
By contrast, his best seasons were 2010/11, 2011/12 and 2014/15, when his contribution figures stood at 51.96%, 47.93% and a stunning 55.08%.
Something that stood out for me was the title-winning 2011/12 season. The 121 goals scored by Real is the current record for most goals scored by a team in a league season. Of those, 58 were contributed by Ronaldo. But more than just the sheer number of goals scored was the importance of these goals.
Ronaldo scored 17 match winners, earning 51 points. To put this another way, 51% of the total points (a record points haul, it should be emphasised) earned by the team came from one person.
Once again, I knew Ronaldo was good. What I didn’t know was just how good he was.
So, what can we say about Ronaldo’s world-record transfer to Real Madrid? Was it a success or not?
It wasn’t just a success, it was a resounding success for both the club and the player.
Despite their middling success in the league, Real were successful in other competitions, most notably the Champions League, where Real became the first team to retain the trophy in its current format. With Ronaldo in the side, the club won 16 trophies:
- 2 x Spanish Cup (2010/11, 2013/14)
- 2 x Spanish League (2011/12, 2016/17)
- 2 x Spanish Super Cup (2012/13, 2017/18)
- 3 x FIFA Club World Cup (2015, 2017, 2018)
- 3 x UEFA Supercup (2014/15, 2016/17, 2017/18)
- 4 x UEFA Champions League (2013/14, 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18)
Additionally, during his time at Real, Ronaldo became the club’s all-time top scorer with 450 goals in 438 games, breaking a record that had been set by Spanish great Raúl, who scored 323 goals in 741 games.
Despite having a bit more in the tank to give, and having previously stated that he wanted to end his career at the club, Ronaldo chose to draw the curtain on his very successful time at Real and leave at the end of the 2017/18 season.
Ronaldo to Juventus (€117m): 2018 to 2021
Stop me if you’ve heard this story before: A club that is absolutely dominant in it’s country’s top-tier league looks to step up and make its mark in European competition. The decision is thus made to buy a player from the Spanish league who has shown himself to be a competent goalscorer and has the experience of winning the Champions League. Sounds familiar, right?
Despite having just lifted his fourth Champions League title with Real (his fifth overall), Ronaldo was reportedly unhappy at the club. So, he decided to move to a club where he felt valued.
With their desire to turn their league dominance into European dominance, Juventus were more than happy to add to their ranks one of only a handful of people to have won the Champions League five times.
Hence it came about that, in the summer of 2018, Juventus signed Ronaldo for €117m. (A shrewd bit of business by Real Madrid, if I do say so myself.)
Would this turn out to be a marriage of convenience that would end in tears and disappointment? Or would it blossom into a beautiful relationship with everything both parties hoped for and more?
| Season | League Position | League Points (Max 114) |
|---|---|---|
| 2016/17 (without) | 1 | 91 |
| 2017/18 (without) | 1 | 95 |
| 2018/19 (with) | 1 | 90 |
| 2019/20 (with) | 1 | 83 |
| 2020/21 (with) | 4 | 78 |
| 2021/22 (without) | 4 | 70 |
| 2022/23 (without) | 7 | 62 |
| Avg. 81.29 |
Some things don’t really jump out at you until you see them presented differently.
I hadn’t caught this while viewing the data in an Excel file but looking at the graph, I saw that everything post-2017/18 was downhill. And it’s not a gradual decline either. It’s laughably bad.
From the highs of winning the league for four years in a row to the ignominy of finishing in seventh place. From a period-high of 95 points to 62 points. (I thought of this comic the moment I saw the graph.)
I’d like to step back for a moment and look beyond the seven-year evaluation period, just to emphasise the extent of Juventus’ utter dominance over the rest of the Italian league.
Those four league triumphs between 2016/17 and 2019/20? They were part of a NINE-year title-winning streak beginning in 2011/12.
Those 95 points earned in 2017/18? That wasn’t even their highest points tally. That honour goes to the 2013/14 season, during which Juventus earned 102 points. That, by the way, is the highest points tally ever earned by a club in any of Europe’s top five leagues.
It’s almost as if Juventus saw PSG’s dominance and said, “You ain’t seen nothing, yet, boy.” Unlike PSG, however, Juventus suffered a complete collapse in form.
The total of 62 points earned in 2022/23 was the club’s lowest tally since the 58 points earned in 2010/11, when the club also finished in seventh place. However sensational this collapse in form is, I would be remiss not to mention that this tally came after a points deduction was imposed on the club due to some financial indiscretions.
But enough about the club. How did Ronaldo do?
| Season | Club League Goals | Goals | Assists1 | % Contribution2 | Match Winners3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016/17 (without) | 77 | 0 | 0 | 0.00% | 0 |
| 2017/18 (without) | 86 | 0 | 0 | 0.00% | 0 |
| 2018/19 (with) | 70 | 21 | 9 | 42.86% | 7 |
| 2019/20 (with) | 76 | 31 | 6 | 48.68% | 12 |
| 2020/21 (with) | 77 | 29 | 2 | 40.26% | 8 |
| 2021/22 (without) | 57 | 0 | 0 | 0.00% | 0 |
| 2022/23 (without) | 56 | 0 | 0 | 0.00% | 0 |
Unsurprisingly, Ronaldo did what he was brought in to do: he scored goals. Lots of them. It really is surprising just how lethal Ronaldo is in front of goal. Over the course of his three seasons at Juventus, he scored a total of 81 Serie A goals in 98 games, an average of 27 goals a season. And his goal contribution never dipped below 40%, with an average of 43.93% which compares favourably to his average goal contribution at Real, albeit from a much smaller sample size.
What stood out to me was just how quickly Ronaldo became indispensable to the team. While the number of goals decreased by 16 between 2017/18 and 2018/19, Ronaldo chipped in with 30 goal contributions, 7 of which were match winners. Those numbers peaked in 2019/20 with 37 goal contributions, 12 of which were match winners. And while his numbers dropped in 2020/21, the impact he had on the team can be seen by the decrease in goals immediately after his departure.
Further emphasising the impact he had, if one were to take away the points earned by Ronaldo’s match-winning goals, Juventus would have finished fourth in 2018/19, eleventh in 2019/20 and eighth in 2020/21.
All of this to say that Ronaldo held up his end of the bargain. And from a sporting perspective, his time at Juventus can be viewed as a success. After all, he lifted 5 trophies during his time at the club:
- 1 x Italian Cup (2020/21)
- 2 x Italian League (2018/19, 2019/20)
- 2 x Italian Super Cup (2018/19, 2019/20)
Much like Neymar, however, part of the reason Juventus signed Ronaldo was to help them move on to the next level in Europe. (Juventus have the unenviable record of being the club to have lost the highest number of Champions League finals.)
When viewed from that light, Ronaldo’s move was a bit of a disappointment. The best Juventus achieved during his time was reaching the quarter-finals in 2018/19. The other two seasons saw the club knocked out at the last-16 stage. Hardly an ideal return on your €117m investment, an investment that was still being paid off more than a year after Ronaldo left.
And, so, it came about that despite the hopes of all parties involved that the marriage of convenience would lead to a fruitful relationship, this transfer ended up being something of a mixed bag.
Footnotes
For a basic understanding of what constitutes an assist, see this Wikipedia page. ↩ ↩2
”% Contribution” is the total number of goals and assists contributed by a player expressed as a percentage of the total goals scored by the team. ↩ ↩2
To best understand the idea behind a match-winning goal, consider the following examples:
- In a match that ends 1-0, the match winner is, obviously, the only goal.
- In a match that ends 2-0, the match winner is the first goal.
- In a match that ends 4-2, the match winner is the third goal scored by the winning team.
In cases where points earned by a player are calculated, only the match winners are considered. Points earned in a draw are NOT factored in. ↩ ↩2