Futbol's Next Becks Thing

Honestly, I think Music Monday and Williams' movie material is my favorite stuff we post. Keep up the good work guys.

Here is a little treat for any of our reader's out there who are soccer (football?) fans. I saw this incredible video of this goal today and even though it wasn't scored by him, it reminded me of futbol's biggest star, Cristiano Ronaldo. He has taken the throne from Beckham and we don't hear much about him in this country so I wanted to introduce the readers to him if they didn't know. Anyway, check this goal out first and then we'll get to the subject.

Robinho is one of the bigger stars on the planet and is grouped in with other successful Brazilians who make cheddar playing internationally like Ronaldo, Kaka, and Ronaldinho. Here is Robinho just pwning with an insane goal.

Now let me get to who I wanted to talk about. This guy might make the women readers faint so becareful ladies. See there are two futbol stars named Ronaldo. One is the older Brazilian legend who is still kickin it, and the other one belongs to the sports biggest star, Manchester United winger and FIFA world player of the year, Cristiano Ronaldo.

Ronaldo is the biggest sports star on the planet that you might not know about. We know Ronaldinho from Brazil after a couple commercials, but Cristiano isn't as popular here...yet. You should check out some of his highlights on youtube, this kid is unbelievable. If I had to compare him to a North American sports star I would have to make a few adjustments because he is pretty unique in terms of skill and popularity.

For skills I would go with Ovechkin. They both are young, tall, strong, lightning fast offensive forces that can creatively score and assist from the wing. The Ovechkin comp works almost perfect for on the field. Wing for Manchester United is like playing center field for the Yankees though, so realize Ronaldo is playing a hallowed position on a tradition rich team in the worlds most popular sport. So Ovechkin's lets go with AO's skills but more tradition and publicity so far. Now we have to talk about the obvious, Ronaldo is a beautiful man. The guys girlfriend history could probably top Jeter's. Well not in terms of star power but in terms of looks. He ran through every honeydip in Portugal and also snagged some english stars like Gemma Atkinson to your left. His list includes Merche Romero (personal fav), Jordana Jardel,Lauren Frain, Karina Ferro, Christina Carlos, Ms Portugal Marina Rodrigues, etc. Try to imagine how popular he is in Europe with those skills, playing for Man U, and with his playboy tendencies. The Paparazzi go wild.

(I apologize for the homo-esque pictures but thats a large part of Ronaldo's global appeal. Its not often that god double blesses people with that caliber of looks and talent. I don't have a man-crush on him but I would love to trade bodies and lives with him.)

Rather than searching for a comparison to a star in our country, you can go a simpler route and just realize Cristiano Ronaldo is Beckham's successor. Hes version 2.0, the upgrade. Ronaldo asked for number 28 when he joined Man. United but they gave him number 7. The number that was worn by George Best and a handful of other greats you wouldn't know besides the most recent one, David Beckham. Ronaldo didn't disappoint. He was captaining the team and winning scoring titles shortly after. Ronaldo took Beckham's place on the field and in the tabloids. You have to wonder if that goes through Beck's head nowadays as he yearns to play in Europe again. I think it hurts him to see someone else sitting in his throne.

Ronaldo is the only other player to rival Beckham's tabloid publicity magnitude. Ronaldo isn't a big name in America yet but I think the wave is coming. TMZ already covers him and when the World Cup happens next year things will accelerate. Google trends say that Ronaldo is now a more popular search than Beckham when you add in the google news tab. The decade younger Ronaldo might not be able to match Beckham's endorsements yet, but he did sign a 25 million euro deal with Nike. He just turned 24.

The difference between Beckham and Ronaldo is on the field. Beckham was more popular than he was good, while Ronaldo is just as good as he is popular. Beckham did finish 2nd twice in the FIFA player of the year voting, but Ronaldo finished third last year and won the award this year at only age 23. Ronaldo is an offensive force. Beckham never scored 20 goals in a premier league season, his high was 16. Ronaldo scored 42 goals last year. Ronaldo is a winger, and he does cross it in to Rooney and the other strikers, but he also kind of plays striker himself. He scores on a lot of headers and is all over the place wreaking havoc.

Ronaldo won't be passing Beckham in popularity in America anytime soon because he won't be playing in the MLS any time soon. I do think he is an interesting figure and someone to keep an eye on though. It is possible that you might start seeing more of him in the near future if he puts up another 30 or 40 goal season, or if TMZ stays interested. I guess there is speculation that he might be engaged to his girlfriend Neireda Gallardo (warning: link is NSFW) so it would be unlikely, but another possibility for american crossover would be if he was dating an american movie star or singer.

I can get into any sport where I can watch the best in the world, so keeping up with Ronaldo keeps my soccer relationship above water. I wish the world cup was this year, that always captures me. In general though I just like to keep up with global superstars. Tiger, Federer, Ronaldo, etc. I believe that greatness transcends the rules of the game you play. Check out the video below for Ronaldo's 42 goal season.

-"J-Dubbs" A.K.A. "Young Money Wolfman" A.K.A. " Sir Blogalot"