Neymar vs. Robinho: club and NT comparisons.
Why one flopped and couldn't live up to expectation and why the other may live up to expectations after all!
Prior to coming to Barcelona, and even in his first year with Barca, there was a lot of comparisons made between Neymar and Robinho, and how the former was turning into a flop just like Robinho: both touted as the next Pele, both coming from Santos and both moving to Spain.
3 Years later, I think we can all agree that Neymar is not a flop at all, both for the NT and for his club.
Robinho was with Real Madrid at almost the same age that Neymar has been with Barcelona: 21 to 24. During that stretch with RM, he won two La Liga titles out of 3 , but never managed to win a CDR or a Champions League. Neymar on the other hand has already won 1 of each (CL, La Liga, CDR) and may add a few more to the list this year. We may argue that Neymar is lucky to be playing in a great, once-in-a-lifetime team and that is correct. But the team Robinho was on didn't lack any superstars either (Casillas, R. Carlos, Ramos, Cannavaro, Raul, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Cassano, Beckham to name a few)
And with the NT, Robinho won his first title (Confederation Cup) at 21 in 2005 , which is the exact same age that Neymar won his first senior title with the team (Confederation Cup in 2013)
In terms of goal scoring, Neymar has already scored a lot more goals with Barcelona in just 2.5 seasons (77 in 125 matches), than Robinho did playing 3 seasons with Real Madrid (35 in 135 matches)
If you compare their stats at Santos, Neymar still has the upper hand:
Neymar: 136 in 225 games (60% scoring ratio)
Robinho: 82 in 177 games (46% scoring ratio)
But if you ignore Neymar's amazing numbers for a moment, Robinho was a pretty good damn player in his early 20s. But two things didn't go his way:
1-playing for Real Madrid: that is a huge move for any player. While he still played pretty good, Real is just not the right club for young players. A move to Barcelona to play alongside Ronaldinho would have been much better.
2-his move to the EPL: I think we all agree that was a disaster and should have never taken place. He kinda got back to normal after he moved to AC Milan but that was a bit too late in my opinion
Now if we were to ignore the rest and only focus about his Santos+Real Madrid+Brazil NT, I think Robinho was a great player and didn't disappoint at all. He won us 2 Confederation Cups and 1 Copa America. Sure he failed to win us the WC in 2006 and 2010, but don't think he was much at fault for these.
So why do a lot of people associate Robinho with the word 'flop'? Just because he didn't turn out to be the next Pele? Or is it the English media building this image for him given his failure in the EPL?
What do you guys think? Comment below or send me an email to let me know your thoughts: assyrianvoice@rogers.com and I can post them here if you like.
ASHOOR
Why one flopped and couldn't live up to expectation and why the other may live up to expectations after all!
Prior to coming to Barcelona, and even in his first year with Barca, there was a lot of comparisons made between Neymar and Robinho, and how the former was turning into a flop just like Robinho: both touted as the next Pele, both coming from Santos and both moving to Spain.
3 Years later, I think we can all agree that Neymar is not a flop at all, both for the NT and for his club.
Robinho was with Real Madrid at almost the same age that Neymar has been with Barcelona: 21 to 24. During that stretch with RM, he won two La Liga titles out of 3 , but never managed to win a CDR or a Champions League. Neymar on the other hand has already won 1 of each (CL, La Liga, CDR) and may add a few more to the list this year. We may argue that Neymar is lucky to be playing in a great, once-in-a-lifetime team and that is correct. But the team Robinho was on didn't lack any superstars either (Casillas, R. Carlos, Ramos, Cannavaro, Raul, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Cassano, Beckham to name a few)
And with the NT, Robinho won his first title (Confederation Cup) at 21 in 2005 , which is the exact same age that Neymar won his first senior title with the team (Confederation Cup in 2013)
In terms of goal scoring, Neymar has already scored a lot more goals with Barcelona in just 2.5 seasons (77 in 125 matches), than Robinho did playing 3 seasons with Real Madrid (35 in 135 matches)
If you compare their stats at Santos, Neymar still has the upper hand:
Neymar: 136 in 225 games (60% scoring ratio)
Robinho: 82 in 177 games (46% scoring ratio)
But if you ignore Neymar's amazing numbers for a moment, Robinho was a pretty good damn player in his early 20s. But two things didn't go his way:
1-playing for Real Madrid: that is a huge move for any player. While he still played pretty good, Real is just not the right club for young players. A move to Barcelona to play alongside Ronaldinho would have been much better.
2-his move to the EPL: I think we all agree that was a disaster and should have never taken place. He kinda got back to normal after he moved to AC Milan but that was a bit too late in my opinion
Now if we were to ignore the rest and only focus about his Santos+Real Madrid+Brazil NT, I think Robinho was a great player and didn't disappoint at all. He won us 2 Confederation Cups and 1 Copa America. Sure he failed to win us the WC in 2006 and 2010, but don't think he was much at fault for these.
So why do a lot of people associate Robinho with the word 'flop'? Just because he didn't turn out to be the next Pele? Or is it the English media building this image for him given his failure in the EPL?
What do you guys think? Comment below or send me an email to let me know your thoughts: assyrianvoice@rogers.com and I can post them here if you like.
ASHOOR