Cristiano Ronaldo's tussle with Lionel Messi for La Liga top goalscorer is likely to go to the wire, just like the title fight. But is Ronaldo becoming overly concerned with individual stats and Messi himself?
It is a strange race when only one competitor shows much sign of wanting to win it, but in the battle to be top goalscorer in Spain this season, that seems to be the case.
Individual awards in football are always a slightly odd thing. In some cases they can be a pleasant consolation for somebody who has missed out on major prizes, recognition for a loyal servant of a lesser club perhaps, except that such a thing doesn't really exist anymore. When Stanley Matthews was the first European Player of the Year anointed by France Football in 1956, it seemed just reward for years of tireless service that had brought only the 1953 FA Cup. Nowdays the idea that a player of such ability should sit at Blackpool for the majority of his career is unthinkable. Or if he did, he would be dismissed, as Matthew le Tissier was, as a player who lacked ambition and refused to leave his comfort zone.
Top goalscorer prizes are at least rooted in something calculable, and perhaps Gary Lineker's Golden Boot at the 1986 World Cup did soothe wounded English pride after defeat to Argentina; perhaps Toto Schillaci's did for Italy four years later. But individual awards are essentially meaningless. In 1986-87, Clive Allen scored 49 goals for Tottenham in domestic competitions, and didn't win a thing; even the League Cup, surely, would have been worth sacrificing half those goals for.
Having a player near the top of the goalscoring charts is indicative of one of two things: either a side that scores a lot of goals generally, or a limited team that plays to a predictable pattern. Last season's top-scorer's list in the Premier League shows precisely that. Didier Drogba and Wayne Rooney are examples of the former; Darren Bent of the latter.
It's easy to assume Cristiano Ronaldo, with 17 league goals this season, is an example of the former. Real Madrid do score a lot of goals, 39 in 16 games, behind only Barcelona with 51 and nine clear of the third-highest-scoring side, Villarreal. But it must be a slight concern that the next highest scorer is Gonzalo Higuain with seven.
Admittedly he has suffered injuries and has played just 12 games to Ronaldo's 16, and Ronaldo takes the penalties (scoring four this season) but that is still a large drop off. Angel di Maria is third with five and Mesut Ozil fourth with four.
In fact, Jose Mourinho has articulated the concern in his demands for a new centre-forward. It may be that he is less than keen on Higuain - he certainly seems not to be convinced by Karim Benzema - but it may also be that by bringing in more attacking options he realises he would have greater weight to bend Ronaldo to his will. CR7 at the moment is playing as an individual; he repeatedly takes shot from ludicrous range, almost as though he believes the battle has become not Barcelona against Madrid, but him against Lionel Messi, as though what matters are not points, but individual statistics.
Last season, Messi had scored two hat-tricks in a row and faced Osasuna looking to become the first player to score three successive hat-tricks in la Liga games since the War. He was double-marked all game and barely got a kick, but as Zlatan Ibrahimovic poked in the opening goal late on, Messi was the first to congratulate him; he, emphatically, wasn't sulking. Contrast that with Ronaldo who, after missing a penalty in the shoot-out after the 2008 Champions League final, sat alone on half-way crying as the rest of the Manchester United players celebrated in front of their fans. He had put United ahead, had been superb all season, but couldn't deal with the fact that at the very end, it wasn't about him.
No matter how gifted he is, that is not a useful trait. Lionel Messi has 17 goals this season, David Villa has 11, Pedro six. More important, though, Messi doesn't seem to be looking for them; more than anything, he cares about winning matches. He is 2.06 to be top-scorer, Ronaldo 1.97; given he cares more for the individual award, so long as Mourinho doesn't lose patience, Ronaldo probably justifies that favouritism.
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