Anglo/Italian Debate: “Ronaldo Best In World” - Is The English Media Naïve?

As a person who was born and educated in England, but has Italian parents and was largely brought up the ‘Italian way’, I am perhaps well placed to understand the difference between the English and Italian/continental way of thinking, not only in football, but in culture as a whole.

Now I don’t want to sit here and preach that Italian is better as every country and culture is different. I just want to demonstrate, in reference to the Cristiano Ronaldo issue, the general lack of understanding of European football in the English media (and by this I don’t mean Goal.com which is an international website!).

I was first bugged by this issue in about 1996/97. I was not even a teenager at the time but I was already stubborn enough to form my own opinions about football, and have scant regard for what much of the media said.

Alan Shearer was proclaimed in the press as the undisputed best forward in the world. This really irritated me. “Shearer couldn’t possibly be better that Ronaldo, Roberto Baggio, George Weah, Davor Suker, Gabriel Batistuta e.t.c,” I thought to myself.

Slowly but surely I formed an opinion that the English media really had a very poor, somewhat non-existent, understanding of the European or world game. If they did not then they would have known that the pragmatic Shearer didn’t deserve to be named in the same breath as these attackers.

As the years passed my view was slowly reinforced. England took an early 2-0 lead in their first group game at Euro 2000 over Portugal, and the commentators on television were already proclaiming them as champions of Europe. Portugal came back to win 3-2 and England were eliminated in the group stages after conceding another three goals to Romania.

Then of course you had the so-called ‘golden generation’ of English talent that went to Euro 2004 and World Cup 2006. The English media boasted repeatedly that they had the best team in the world in their possession and that they would bring home the trophy.

After all they had the best left-back in the world Ashley Cole, the best centre-backs John Terry and Rio Ferdinand, the best centre midfielders in Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, and the best support striker in Wayne Rooney.

Following a simply disastrous tournament when England displayed all of their innate technical deficiencies, manager Sven-Goran Eriksson was slated for throwing away this golden generation of talent. It was all his fault.

Of course this was absolutely ridiculous. Steve McClaren’s subsequent stint as manager, coupled with Eriksson’s work at Manchester City, has proven that the Swede actually did an excellent job, and in reaching three quarter-finals he actually punched above England’s weight. In truth this has probably been accepted now by most people, although many of the lessons, as we will soon see, have still not been learned.

My point though is that the English media makes ridiculous statements, such as “Alan Shearer is the best striker in the world”, and that “England are going to win the World Cup”, and unfortunately the majority of the nation, as is the power of the press and broadcast, are brainwashed into believing it. You are what you are taught after all.

The most recent of these preposterous declarations is that Cristiano Ronaldo is the best player in the world.

Once again, referring back to first Shearer and then the World Cup, this belief is only present due to a complete lack of understanding of the European game.

Ronaldo may have smashed in 27 goals this season, however as Gil Gillespie correctly pointed out in his Who Is Better – Kaka Or Ronaldo article, how can a player who has almost always flopped whenever he has come up against a top team/defence/defender, or in a big match, possibly be regarded as the best player in the world.

It is ignorance such as this that is so frustrating.

Only on Sunday I was watching a programme called ‘Sunday Supplement’ on Sky Sports. For those of you who don’t know, this is a weekly show that includes the chief football writers from all of the top newspapers in England; The Guardian, The Times, The Daily Mail e.t.c.

These are the so-called experts of English footballing journalism, the people that the country ‘should’ look up to for their knowledge and understanding of the game.

One of the chief writers, whose name I will not disclose, incredibly claimed that Ashley Cole was the best left back in the world. The rest of the panel did not disagree.

My first reaction was shock, my second reaction was to switch off the television, then my third reaction was “actually I want to hear some more gems such as these.”

I immediately had flashbacks to 1997 and Alan Shearer. I mean Ashley Cole is so clearly better than the likes of Gianluca Zambrotta, Philipp Lahm, Maxwell, Eric Abidal and so on. For me personally, Ashley Cole is not even the best left-back at his own club, let alone the world.

Until the English media begins to grasp a better understanding of the European and World game I fear that the same age-old football problems that have plagued this country in recent years will always be present.

The top journalists may have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the domestic game, but their grasp of continental football (unlike the journalists in Italy and other European countries) is frankly embarrassing.

What are your views on this topic? Is the English Media naïve? Do they lack an understanding of the European game? Are the English people in general being brainwashed by statements such as “Cristiano Ronaldo is the best player in the world”? I will like to know what YOU Think