Thierry Henry is probably the best foreigner to ever close his trade as Prime Minister and he is definitely the most exciting. He scored a lot of great goals and even more crucial goals for Arsenal and became the top goalscorer in the club’s history.

The one big criticism of him that has ruined his career is his tendency to miss out on big matches. He’s done it so many times for Arsenal and France and at Barcelona, ​​most of his good performances and there haven’t been many have been against weak opponents.

The first time I saw Ronaldo in action was when he made his debut for Manchester United against Bolton Wanderers and his impact was immediate and incredible. He impressed me so much that I called a friend of mine who is a fervent United fan to tell him that a star was born.

Even though Ronaldo had his critics in England with many saying he brags too much and his case was style over substance, I never felt this was true as I have always been a fan of those players who bring something more. playing field.

Not only did he impress against modest opposition, but, as he did against Portugal at Euro 2004, he was quite capable of taking over from Luis Figo and producing superb performances regardless of opposition.

This trend continued until the 2006 world cup, where he was impressive before he was viciously kicked in the thigh by Dutchman Kahlid Boulahrouz.

Then came the 2006/2007 season where he conquered everything and I was totally convinced that he was the best player in the world with some superb performances in the league and his performances against Roma, especially in the first leg when United played with 10 men, they were just magnificent. Then it started to change a bit, as he wasn’t effective against AC Milan in the semis, but I put it down to the amount of respect Milan showed him by putting Gennaro Gattuso on his case.

He continued that in the FA Cup final against Chelsea, but I put it down to exhaustion and gave him the benefit of the doubt. But I started to be skeptical this season because even though he has scored a remarkable 30 goals in his last 31 games for United, Ronaldo has been anonymous to all the big names this season.

He was not as effective against Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool and in the Champions League he was invisible against Lyon in both ties.

His critics have been saying for a long time that he only performs well against modest opponents, but before this season, he didn’t think so, as he always played well for Portugal and looked like their leader.

To be the best in the world, you have to appear in the big games and, as Thierry Henry discovered to his cost, you don’t win the big individual prizes by being the Premiership bigwig shining against modest defenses and then disappearing on big chances.

Let’s face it, even if the Premiership is the most popular and most watched league in the world, it’s the really important games that fans are glued to their TV to watch and not all of them would be that interested in Manchester United vs. Sunderland as partial. observers, so if Ronaldo or Henry before him fail to shine in the big televised games, it’s no wonder they don’t win European and World Footballer of the Year.

It may be that Ronaldo will have to go to Spain or Italy to prove himself by playing against much tougher defenders than those he faces as prime minister. He also needs to go to become a better player too. The likes of AC Milan’s Kaká find defending in the Champions League much easier than in Serie A, as his Champions League goals attest.

It would be a great shame if Ronaldo is seen as a player who only shines against weak opposition, as he is so much better than that.