Neymar > Ronaldinho

Neymar is a top two most talented Brazilian ever over Ronaldinho

Superior creator playmaker and goalscorer. Both elite dribblers (Ronaldinho superior athlete) but Neymar has historical take on stats that rivalled Messi and on the eye it’s pretty obvious too – there are full games of Ronaldinho on footballia.net and I just don’t see how he’s the better dribbler when the statistics back it too

Neymar was so much more efficient, productive consistent than Ronaldinho was hence the superior G+A

Narratives to address. Neymar’s club success is invalidated due to Ronaldinho’s lesser roster of teammates, yet at the international level this could be flipped it on it’s head to flatter Neymar.

No Ballon d’Or unlike Ronaldinho. Pretty sure he wouldn’t have won one in the Messi era – although Dinho has standout years where he’d be deserving of the Ballon d’Or (he or Henry deserved it in 2006) while Neymar definitely does not due to injuries in 2018 and 2019 (hypotheticals I don’t want to delve further into)

Easier generation for attackers in the 2010s? 100%, there’s a trend of more goals being scored and higher defensive lines, but takeons were more easily completed in the 00s. Thierry Henry for example likely would’ve had a few 60 G+A seasons in the 2010s considering how he gapped his opponents in terms of goals and assists during his prime

Creatively it’s not an argument, Neymar 2014-2019 was again rivalling or bettering Messi in key passes + big chances created – he has and will be minimum top 3 in both stats in every tournament and campaign he has played/will play.

He has more 10/10s and MOTM performances than Ronaldinho as well as 8+ rated seasons (17/18) that again only Messi bettered

17/18 Neymar vs 18/19 Messi (per 90)
League + UCL
Goals: 0.93 vs 1.22
Assists: 0.63 vs 0.41
G+A: 1.56 vs 1.63
Key Passes: 3.40 vs 2.94
Shot creating actions: 8.62 vs 8.18
Big chances created: 1.04 vs 1.09
Big chances missed 0.52 vs 0.41
Successful take ons: 7.20 vs 4.28
Fouls won: 4.93 vs 2.18
Progressive passes: 9.59 vs 11.20
Progressive carries: 7.65 vs 5.16
Defensive actions: 1.45 vs 0.74

Not implying 17/18 Neymar was better then Messi the year after, just comparing his individual playmaking + creative peak to Messi’s – 15/16 (Neymar increased creative responsibility after the treble season) they were still very close to eachother creatively. His performance vs Toulouse at home that season, is the only recorded 10.0 on FotMob, objectively one of the best performances by a footballer of all time https://youtu.be/N3yfSKpQ8ZA?feature=shared personally impressed me a lot more than the Ronaldinho games on footballia.net, also Neymar against PSG in 16/17 in the 6-1 comeback, literally was playing at an all time level in those last few minutes

Stereotypes – Neymar is lazy, off the ball apparently (not really a stereotype anymore think it’s been noticed with Mbappé and Messi on the same pitch as him when PSG so hsve the ball). Had high ball win stats and one of the best pressers in football consistently (21/22 season he was pressing more than Jesus, Sterling, Mané and Salah with 17 pressing actions per game) and was amazing off-ball in Tuchel’s pressing system at PSG, where he had 27 pressing actions vs Dortmund in a game which would directly put him with Sadio Mané in terms of pressing (irrelevant but Firmino’s pressing stats are the best ever for an attacker who’s team had a lot of possession). Probably the worst stereotype I just don’t understand has been associated with him – a better argument for him being a luxury player would be his ego and issues with teammates like Cavani + obscene pricetag.

Funnily enough I still feel Ronaldinho is underrated in general and he was definitely better than Zidane, Figo and Iniesta (first two were strange yet not uncommon statements doing my research on old forum threads in the early 00s, accusing of Ronaldinho of being “lazy, selfish” etc and Iniesta > was being said during Spain and Barca’s peak) (those who say he’s better than Messi are going too far though) his 03-07 five year peak was historical and his influence from wide positions (Henry’s extraordinary number of goals too) set the blueprint for wide attackers in football. The idea of Messi and Ronaldo doing what they did in the 2010s would just seem absolutely outrageous to someone in 2001. Wide forwards became more valuable than the number #10 position for Barca.

I just don’t think Ronaldinho starts for anyone in the MSN trio. Rivaldo has the better case but that’s a discussion for another time.

Neymar is definitely someone who’s severely underrated yet when it comes to his talent people literally don’t deny he could’ve been on Messi and Ronaldo’s level (don’t think he could’ve reached their individual goalscoring peaks). With all due respect to someone like Modric, he was not a better player than Neymar (come on lol). It’s also true Neymar has never had a top 3 Ballon d’Or season because he can’t keep himself fit to have a full season worthy of winning it. Stats in the right context shouldn’t be disregarded because you feel like it either and the “well you haven’t watched Ronaldinho” comments are 100% untrue considering there are full matches on the internet available to watch. Nostalgia bias exists as well as recency bias as well as trophy bias but if there’s one thing I can probably agree with regarding to these two players, it’s that Ronaldinho is definitely “greater” than Neymar, by definition