Surjit Patowary

Stats giant called out for possible agenda against Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo, Juventus

The transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid to Juventus was one that surprised the entire footballing world, as the Portuguese superstar left Los Blancos after winning three Champions League titles in a row.

Three years since he moved, Andrea Agnelli would never have imagined that a Juventus side featuring Ronaldo in their ranks could ever struggle to retain a title that feels like a birthright considering their performances in the league in the past decade – but it has been a very underwhelming season for the Bianconeri this season.

Andrea Pirlo’s side has had a number of disappointing results in the league and is currently fourth – but with Juventus already having been knocked out of the Champions League as well, the spotlight is on their superstar Ronaldo.

Ronaldo made the news by salvaging a point late in the game in Sunday’s Turin derby against Torino, as Juventus looked down the barrel of what would have been their fifth league defeat of the season.

Ronaldo managed to stay onside as Giorgio Chiellini’s flick came through to him following a Federico Bernardeschi cross, as he headed the ball into the back of the net from just a couple of yards out to score what was his 24th league goal of the season.

Despite his heroics, stats website Sofascore awarded Ronaldo with a match rating of 6.8 – something that enraged a part of his following worldwide. Fans claimed that the website has an agenda against the Juventus star, as they also backed their claims up with ratings taken from other stat websites.

As a contrast to the Sofascore rating which made Ronaldo the eighth-best Juventus player taking part in the contest, fans pointed out that Ronaldo was rated 8.4 by Fotmob, 8.5 by 365Scores, and 8.0 for WhoScored – all of whom rated him as the club’s best player in the match.

More fans defended their favourite player by referring to Sofascore’s tallied statistics of 33 big chances being missed by Ronaldo this season – a number that has allegedly been manipulated with.

Ronaldo has continued to impress for his club in the league as he went four clear of Romelu Lukaku in the race for the Serie A golden boot, although the season is likely to not have gone very well by very high standards.