Who Is Better - Kaka or Ronaldo?

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro and Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite are named, respectively, after actor-turned-President Ronald Reagan, and the baby babble of a younger brother who couldn't pronounce the word 'Ricardo'. From these beginnings come the two most famous names in world football: Ronaldo and Kaka.

The pair are also the subject of one of the most polemical arguments currently being debated in pubs and bars around the planet. One of the two gets the vote of FIFA, UEFA, Pele, and the majority of Europe’s army of football journalists. The other can count on the support of Sir Alex Ferguson, the late George Best, and his mum. So, who is the better player, Kaka or Ronaldo?

Based on this season’s form, it is difficult to argue against Ronaldo.

In Serie A Kaka has been stumbling a little, looking slightly jaded, not quite managing to pick up the rhythm that has previously marked him out as the most outstanding attacking talent of his generation. By his standards, it’s been a "nearly, but not quite" kind of season so far.

Ronaldo, on the other hand, has been almost supersonic in the Premier League. Swapping his annoying diving antics and some of his unnecessary trickery for a more straight-running, direct approach, the Portuguese midfielder has frightened the living daylights out of just about every defender and goalkeeper in the league.

His blistering pace, remarkable athleticism, unstoppable free-kicks and clinical eye for goal have seen him overtake his goalscoring tally of last season already and taken him to the top of the netting charts. He has hit 27 goals in as many games for Man United - not bad for a player who’s supposed to play in midfield. His willingness to attack is relentless.

But when comparing these two stellar talents, it is important to remember the old adage: ’form is temporary and class is permanent.’

Michel Platini, who spoke about Ronaldo this week, is correct in saying that the Portuguese has yet to prove himself on the biggest of stages.

"It's difficult to compare players in competitions and teams. Is it more difficult to play right wing in Manchester than it is in Italy, where it doesn't exist?” Platini argued this week.

What the UEFA president is saying is that, for all it’s thrills and spills, the Premier League is not as defensively sophisticated as the equivalent competitions in Spain and Italy.

"If Ronaldo is the best player in the world or Europe he will have to prove it in the Euros, because that will be the only way we can judge him, when all the best players will have had the chance to be recognised," declared Platini.

In the Champions League last season, when it mattered most, Ronaldo went missing. While Kaka was busy winning the competition and becoming its top scorer, Ronaldo turned in a few cameo performances and scored a couple of goals. In his side’s vital away leg against Milan in the San Siro, he first made a fool of himself, then appeared to have gone home for the rest of the evening.

But lets not dwell too long on Ronaldo’s flaws. He is, after all, still only 22. No-one is suggesting that he won't go on to become a great player.

This, in turn, should not distract from the fact that Kaka is, quite simply, a more complete footballer than Ronaldo.

His balance is better, his technique is easier, he is much more elegant in possession, a far better team player, a more incisive passer and a more intelligent reader of the game. The Brazilian has never attempted a step-over in his life because he doesn’t have to. Such circus trickery is beneath him.

Kaka glides past players as if they aren‘t there; he's as subtle as he is lighting quick. And when Kaka sings, Ronaldo often stutters. The latter's jittery, jinking, dribbling is easier to deal with as a defender. Not easy, by any means, but easier.

To put it another way, marking Ronaldo is about as difficult as dodging bullets. Marking Kaka is like marking the breeze.

The Portuguese, however, is better in the air and probably a better free-kick taker. Probably? We haven't really had an opportunity to see how good Kaka is at set pieces because Pirlo, the best in the world, takes them for Milan and Ronaldinho usually takes them for Brazil. As for Ronaldo's higher ratio of goals per game, as Platini intimated, he is doing it in a league where it is easier to score goals. As for his 20 strikes in 53 games at international level, almost all of them have come against teams such as Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Estonia.

Pele, who is usually a terrible judge of talent, to be quite honest, has actually got it right this time.

“Kaka is the best player in the world, without a doubt,” the Brazilian legend told Gazzetta Dello Sport recently.

Most of the talk of Ronaldo being the best player in the world has come from England, where there is a tendency to claim global supremacy too easily and too quickly.

Take Ronaldo’s stunning free-kick against Portsmouth. As soon as his strike hit the top right hand corner of the net, pundits and fans were proclaiming it as the greatest free-kick of all time. It wasn’t. Its not even the best free-kick of the season. Andrea Pirlo’s pearler in the Milan derby was much closer to the edge of the box and more difficult to lift up over the wall and down again into the top corner.

Okay, all these claims about one player being better than another are probably unproductive, anyway. Football is, lest we forget, a team game. Are Kaka and Ronaldo really better players than the likes of Sergio Ramos, Gianluigi Buffon, Francesco Totti, Esteban Cambiasso, Andrea Pirlo, Fernando Torres, Cesc Fabregas or Zlatan Ibrahimovic? It is, of course, virtually impossible to compare players who perform completely different roles and functions on the pitch.

The best we can conclude in the debate about Kaka and Ronaldo is that Kaka is the finished article and Ronaldo still has a little way to go. But then again, if he is a finished praduct, should he not be producing the results in Serie A? And the debate goes on...

One thing is certain: it is a privilege to watch both of them play.