LIONEL MESSI or Cristiano Ronaldo… who is truly the best footballer of all time?
You could argue all day about stats, trophies won and various physical attributes and get absolutely nowhere.
Messi is twice as good as Ronaldo according to a supercomputer
No one will every TRULY know who is the better of the two legends… or will they?
Professor Jesse Davis of KU Leuven University and data experts at SciSports have finally attempted to determine who is truly the best using a supercomputer.
The tech boffins have attempted to work out who really deserves the “GOAT” mantle based on 1,600 different actions that occur during a game.
Explaining the system, Davis explained: “The value of a player is often determined by goals and assists.
“A goal is a rare event, however, because an average of 1,600 actions are estimated to occur in a match.
“Our model looks at each action – shots, passes, dribbles, tackles – and calculates its value.”
In the interest of fairness, they looked at only years the two stars both played in LaLiga – with Messi at Barcelona and Ronaldo then at Real Madrid – focusing on 2013-14 to 2017-18.
LEO TWICE AS GOOD
And it’s not even close, with Messi the winner by a considerable margin.
The Argentine wizard racked up a total Valuing Actions by Estimating Probabilities (VAEP) score of 1.21.
Ronaldo, meanwhile, was nearly HALF that figure with a VAEP score of 0.61.
One of the scientists analysing the data – Tom Decroos, a PhD student – revealed just why Messi won so comfortably.
Decroos explained: “In the first seasons, Messi and Ronaldo’s scores are very close to each other.
“From the 2015-16 season, Messi has stepped away from his eternal rival.
“We see a trade-off with most football players: either they make a lot of actions with a less high value – that’s the case with Paul Pogba, for example.
“Or you have players who are less likely to hit the ball, but who have a big impact… that is typical of strikers like Harry Kane, Mohamed Salah and Ronaldo.
“Messi is exceptional in this area. He has a very high number of actions and they also have a high value.”
So there you have it. Whenever anyone asks who is really the best footballer, it’s Messi. And it’s not close…
Watch an 18-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo teach Man Utd kids including Jesse Lingard skills in training
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
