Why Juventus could prove to be the most difficult and rewarding challenge of Cristiano Ronaldo

LONDON: Love it or hate it, you have to admire the character of Cristiano Ronaldo.
At a time of life Big paychecks in Qatar or China, the mercuriel of Madeira has opted for what will be his biggest challenge to Juventus.
His career during the last decade has unfolded under the cloud of endless debate – "Ronaldo or Messi, who is the best?"
Fortunately, this circus has somewhat calmed down at the recent World Cup. A few flashes of pure brilliance aside, neither of the two players had enough impact to lead their respective teams to Messi 's glory and expectation for an ongoing international trophy.
And, while both players are undeniably in their own Ronaldo has a champion title of Europe to his credit that will always tilt the scales towards the Portuguese – especially for those who measure greatness in statistics and the trophies.
In all honesty, Ronaldo's statistics are staggering. His stint at Manchester United, where he split his teeth and began to show his potential as a great player, played a key role in the club by winning three Premier League titles and their third European crown. His 450 goals in 438 games with Real Madrid have allowed him to become the top scorer of the Spanish giant on the road to victory under the sun.
But the Premier League and La Liga are leagues in which offensive players play. With the start of TV coverage, they have both been transformed to entertain the billions of people who plug in every week – and nowadays, goal superstars are gaining fans and not defenses.
The art of defense has everything – but has disappeared and the culture of building a spine across a team has slowly but surely been eroded. Nobody wants to watch a draw and absorbing virgin, absorbing, everything is about 6-5 thrillers.
But, not so in Italy.
Serie A, for all its scandals and falling from grace since its heady days of the 1990s, is still an extremely difficult league to win. It is a league in which fans and managers place a lot of importance on defense, building teams back and forth (and not the other way around) and to the mentality of "you can not lose if you do not concede".
Granted, Juventus walked Series A for the last seven seasons; It's to be expected from one of the richest clubs in the world. But they rarely won at a gallop. They never scored nearly 100 goals in a season to win it – unlike Manchester City Premier League last season, or Barcelona and Real Madrid almost every season in the same period.
And not once the top scorer of Serie A reached the dizzying heights Ronaldo (and Messi) hit Liga season after season, nor was he ever a Juventus player claiming the Golden Boot.
All this indicates a monumental challenge for Ronaldo. On paper, it should not be easy to score goals in Serie A and with the sharp improvement of Napoli, Roma and Lazio recently, and it will not be easy for Juventus to win an eighth scudetto in a row. year.
While Messi prefers to stay in a country and in his comfort zone of the Spanish league, a 30-year-old Ronaldo succeeds in Italy or, better still, guides Juventus towards European glory. a lot – it would be his most remarkable feat to date
And that would end the boring debate about who is the greatest in the world, once and for all.
No dispute.