this post was submitted on 27 May 2024
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Blasphemy. Rooney was a much better player than Ribery in most aspects. In his early career he was absolutely unstoppable as a winger. Then he became a number 9, then attacking midfielder, and eventually a deep lying playmaker. I just think he was a more gamebreaking and talented player, while Ribery was merely an elite winger that played his role in a dominant Bayern side.
Rooney was a giant of the game but Ribery was easily the more successful and productive talent. Ribery was so good that he had Bundesliga teams marking him with 3 men and they still couldn't stop him.
He was the heir to Zidane and should've won the Ballon d'Or at least once if it wasn't a rigged popularity contest. In 2013 he was an unstoppable creative force that led Bayern to win basically everything. The Ballon d'Or committee delayed announcing his victory so they could gather more votes for Ronaldo. Rooney probably had the same if not greater talent, but he was too much of a team player for it to show at that level. Maybe if he left United for City when he put in that transfer request at his peak he would've had a team built around him and we could've seen him at that level.
What you're saying isn't totally crazy, but I still have to disagree. Ronaldo scored 66 goals in 2013; he was a far better player than Ribery that season and every season tbh. Zidane was also a far better player than Ribery.
Ribery was a brilliant winger who could get by his man and create chances. But it was only as effective as it was because Bayern was so dominant. Consider this, in his 12 seasons at Bayern, they only had a goal differential below +41 once, which was in 08/09 when they finished second with a +29 GD. They never averaged below 2 goals/game, reaching all the way up to 2.88 goals/game in 12/13.
Rooney was Man Utd's top scorer as an 18 year old in 04/05, scoring 11 goals playing as a winger in an offense that only produced 1.52 goals/game. He was also the leading goalscorer in 2 of the 3 most productive offenses that Man Utd had while he was there. In 09/10 they averaged 2.26G/g and he scored 26, and in 11/12 they averaged 2.34G/g and he scored 27.
Subtracting penalties, Rooney scored 205 league goals and added 118 assists in his career, while Ribery went for 100 goals and 127 assists. Interestingly enough, they ended up with the exact same G-PK+A/90 mins in their careers, 0.65.
Probably the best evidence of what I'm saying is that Ribery's numbers are much lower in all the seasons before and after his Bayern stint. When your team is scoring close to 3 goals per game, it's not too difficult to ping in a few crosses per game and rack up some assists. But on a less dominant team, Ribery didn't have the ability to take over the game by himself like Rooney was able to.
Sources
https://fbref.com/en/players/f61c7c4e/Franck-Riberyhttps://fbref.com/en/players/f07be45a/Wayne-Rooney