Beckham is as good now as he was then. A footballer that is as incomplete as it gets. .
Rubbish.
Beckham has never, ever, replicated his 1999 form, where literally everything he touched turned to goal.
He was the assist king. He had well over 10 in the CL
alone.
It is fact that as a player get's older they lose physical attributes. Something that most don't associate with Beckham was workrate. He worked harder (the stats proved it) than anyone else, defensively he was a dream.
You don't become a ballon dor for having a pretty face and a nice swing when crossing. Rivaldo was at the pinacle of his career then and he had more ability than Beckham in his little finger.
So? The World Player of the Year is an award that goes to the player who has played the best
over the course of that year. Not who has more talent.
Every other year Rivaldo was much better than Becks, but this particular year was a special one for Beckham.
Not to forget the hell he went through before the season, which makes his performances all the more amazing.
Like it or not, a "Nice swing with crossing" can be every bit as useful as a "Maradana turn with a Pele chip pass". The result is the same.
Some people are horribly naive when it comes to this though, you don't have to be flashy to be as effective as someone else.
Not to mention the fact that Beckham won the Treble.
You didn't answer my question either. Did you watch United in 1999?
And Ronaldo last season had an injury that kept him from playing and then hitting form for a prolonged period. Other things contributed for not reaching 40 goals again (like the fact that it was impossible even for him to ever reach that number again unless all the stars align in the perfect possible way that everything goes right for him), but his ability and shape is at the same level now and last season too as it was when he was voted clear #1 in the world.
Again, goals aren't everything. He had a particular pattern:
06/07 - Out of this world performances, great goal scoring.
07/08 - Out of this world goal scoring, great performances.
08/09 - Brilliant goal scoring, poor performances.
If you had actually paid attention to us last season you'd know that deep into the season Ronaldo was heavily critisezed for his poor performances (after which he scored vs Porto).
Ronaldo last season lost the will/ability to actually take players on. There could be several reasons for it. After you miss the first 2 months of a season you probably won't be 100% until after you have a pre season, or it could be that in a league where you are constantly under physical pressure, you need acceleration, and like I've said before his acceleration is nothing compared to what it used to be, because he carries so much more muscle.
Ronaldo was brilliant last year, and was our 2nd best player (after Vidic), but he wasn't a patch on his 07/08 season.
