Cristiano Ronaldo has claimed he not Lionel Messi “is the best football player ever”, but a body language expert says he isn’t telling the truth and is “angry” and “insecure”
Cristiano Ronaldo doesn’t truly believe he’s “the best football player ever”, according to a body language expert.
The Manchester United and Real Madrid legend turned 40 today, February 5. Ahead of his birthday, the Portuguese icon gave an interview on Spanish TV in which he claimed it’s him who is the greatest of all time, not Lionel Messi, despite the Argentine being widely accepted as his superior.
Ronaldo said: “If I finish on 920, 925 goals, it doesn’t matter to me at all. I am the best in history. Period. If I reach 1,000 goals, great. If not, that’s fine too. Numbers don’t lie. I’m the most complete player ever. To say that Cristiano isn’t complete is a lie.
“You may prefer Pele, Messi, Maradona, I understand and respect that. But I am the best player ever, I believe that. I’m fast, I’m strong, I score with my head, with the left, no one has ever been more complete than me.”
However, ‘human lie detector’ Darren Stanton reckons Ronaldo – who now plys his trade with Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League – showed in the interview that he’s “angry” and “insecure” about his status in the game.
Speaking to OLBG, Stanton said: “His body language betrays the verbal content of what he’s saying. I don’t believe that he believes he is the greatest player. I think it’s all front.
“We see that increase in blink rate, the shoulder shrug, the horseshoe smile, and he’s not actually a very good person at masking his emotions. He’s a guy that cannot help but wear his heart on his sleeve, regardless of what he’s trying to say with the words out of his mouth.
“It may all come down to insecurities in certain aspects of his personality and character and how he perceives how he is perceived.”
Ronaldo, who has scored almost 1,000 goals across a glittering career that has seen him lift the Champions League five times, Euro 2016, seven league titles and five Ballon d’Ors, was in no mood to be humble as he chatted on El Chiringuito de Jugones.
And he couldn’t resist having a swipe at his rival Messi for moving to America’s MLS to finishing his career – labelling the division weaker than the Saudi Pro League.
Stanton said: “Ronaldo is really mixed up. We see a mixture of anger – he is a very angry guy in this moment. I think he doesn’t seem to feel he is getting the respect he’s due.
“We see what we call a horseshoe smile, which lasts for less than a fifth of a second, which is an expression of anger. That is the reverse of a happy smile. His eyebrows are pulled together and his eyes are squinting.
“I don’t think he thinks he’s being held up by others to the legendary status he thinks he deserves but the irony is that he looks like a person who actually does lack confidence in himself in certain areas.”
Stanton said the footage suggested Ronaldo was desperate for the approval of others, despite trying to pretend otherwise. He said: “We see a big increase in blink rate which is linked to anxiety.
“It’s almost like he’s transmitting something different to what he’s saying about being number one while his left shoulder does what we call a bilateral shoulder shrug.
“When we normally shrug our shoulders, it’s as if to say I don’t know, I don’t care or you are indifferent to something, but when someone does a one-sided shrug it’s often an unconscious gesture to show they don’t care when in fact they do care.
“He does seem to care and he appears to be going through real emotional angst here and doesn’t look like a person that truly believes half of what he’s saying here.”
Ronaldo revealed he could have joined Messi at Barcelona earlier in his career and said the two players enjoy their rivalry – despite it sparking furious disagreements between fans online. He said: “I have a good relationship with Leo Messi.
“I was translating him in English at an award ceremony too. It was funny. It was a healthy rivalry, we got along. I could have played for Barca before Manchester United. I was at Sporting, they tried to sign me, they wanted me.”
Stanton concluded Ronaldo was telling the truth when he said he doesn’t hate Messi, but the body language expert said he was clearly frustrated that the World Cup winner is rated ahead of him in most people’s eyes.
He said: “He says Messi is not his enemy, and he appears to be sincere in saying that, but they are almost like comic book rivals. One needs the other to coexist on the level they’ve both achieved.
“Despite what Ronaldo says, it does seem that Messi is where he draws his aspirations from – that is measured against Messi, how he performs and what he does.
“I don’t think he dislikes or hates him but Ronaldo seems very frustrated that the game, the pundits and many of the fans don’t hold Ronaldo up as the clear number one. That frustrates him.”