Andrew Smith: Best bar none

THE CHAMPIONS League final is being framed as potentially a validatory and valedictory occasion for Cristiano Ronaldo in Manchester United colours.

Neither may be applicable. After a season in which the outrageously gifted 23-year-old winger – note the midfield status – has plundered a George Best-eclipsing 41 goals and snaffled all manner of individuals accolades, his Best-eclipsing greatness has surely been acknowledged by too many of the game's cognoscenti to need confirmation on themythical "biggest stage",on which doubters maintain he has conspicuously failed to perform.

Equally, there have surely been sufficient indications that the Old Trafford club, to whom he is contracted for a further four years, won't allow him to be so sweet on the eye-candy of Real Madrid that Wednesday's showpiece in Moscow will be his last appearance for the English club.

You would think so. Yet, faith in the above assertions is diluted when one is treated to the spectacle of Ronaldo fielding questions from the English press at United's media day for the final at their Carrington training complex. The Portuguese proves far less convincing dancing round questions concerning his future career plans than defenders in the Premier League... well, those outside of England's Champions League regulars, anyway.

And so obsessed are certain journalists with the notion of Ronaldo being denuded of the power to dismantle opponents when they have a similar status that is difficult not to muse on the potential limitations of his audacity and dexterity.

Ronaldo himself doesn't make this a priority. Sneered at for his arrogance, it might be said he is merely candid and devoid of false modesty. He is a product of his time and humility does not capture the spirit of this age, inside or outside the game.

"I know I am the best, this is why it does not make me angry," he says when asked if he is annoyed by the claims he has failed to produce truly breathtaking moments in his club's more exacting assignments.

His claim to having no equal is pretty compelling. Both the PFA's and football writers' player of the year in each of the past two seasons, this is a double double achieved only once before in the history of the English game. His total of 31 league goals surpasses the tally of any midfielder and indeed is the best for any player in the Premier League across a 38-game season, matching Alan Shearer's tally.

World Soccer's player of the year, he is on course for the world player of the year and the Golden Boot – a bauble he says "is important to me" – to boost his mantelpiece-buckling collection of personal awards. Oh, and Johan Cruyff says he is "better than George Best and Denis Law, who were two brilliant and great players in the history of United".

"People say I don't perform in the really big games but I scored two times against Arsenal recently and scored against Liverpool, " says Ronaldo. "I have not scored against Chelsea but I have scored against every other team in England. I need to show nothing to anyone (in the Champions League final]. I scored 31 goals, I win every award. I am very, very happy with this season. Of course if I play well against Chelsea I have more chance of winning the Champions League and winning individual awards. I have never won the Champions League and I am very excited to do that this season."

If he is cavorting in front of the winners' podium at the Luzhinki Stadium, Ronaldo will have captured every major honour available to him in England with the exception of the FA Cup. Criticised for teasing and tormenting opponents simply to humiliate them, he lacks that domestic honour because in last year's final against Chelsea he didn't show, never mind boat. In eight outings against the Stamford Bridge club, indeed, he has failed to find the net and bagged only one goal in seven matches against Liverpool.

Of his five goals in 23 games against the teams in United's mini-league, four have come against Arsenal. It is worth pointing out that Best never scored against United's major rivals of his era, Leeds United. Unlike the Irishman, however, Ronaldo has not exactly been prolific in Europe when facing potential competition winners, either. Of his 11 goals in 40 games, only four come into this bracket – the three he put past Roma and one against AC Milan.

At a still tender age, the Portuguese is unquestionably the complete player. He has sumptuous close control, vision, strength, pace, glorious free-kick prowess and is both powerful and brave in the air.

"I'm learning all the time and not just because I score 41 goals and play very good in my opinion," he says. "I think I have more things to learn and I think I play with the right players, in the right club, to learn more and more, and to make me a more experienced player. I want carry on like that. I want to work more to achieve more titles, more awards. For me that is important."

From that, it would be reasonable to assume that Ronaldo will remain out of Real Madrid's reach for the moment. But he is a player more admired than loved because of a cynical streak that manifests itself in flouncy falls for fouls both real and imagined. And his equivocation over a possible £100m move to a Madrid club that might be considered the pinnacle for a Madeira boy betrays a similar capacity for cunning – or conning, some might say.

"I will speak to Man U about the season after the Champions League," he says. "Everyone knows I am happy here in the club. I think I am in the right club but in the future you never know. But I want to stay here."

Ronaldo says reports in Spanish daily Marca that he was unhappy at not being given a salary hike a season into his five-year, £110,000-a-week deal are "untrue". Oddly, he hesitates when confirmation is sought over the fact he has four years left on his contract.

"To be honest I don't know, yeah, I think so." Perhaps the length of it is irrelevant. He then can't help but again trot out his standard caveat when asked if he will be with United next year. "Yeah, I think so, but in the future you never know," he repeats.

Blossoming under the influence of Alex Ferguson – "the boss is the reasons I am here, he has helped me a lot and I feel very, very good" – Ronaldo says he wants to "carry on like that" – he has "many friends at the club" having been there five years, knowing the staff, the players and feeling "this is my home". But, surprise surprise, in the next breath "I don't know" is offered as a response to whether there would be an unwillingness to break his bond with his Old Trafford mentor.

Ronaldo, at least, knows what he thinks about playing in the English Premier League. "I enjoy it a lot here. At the moment it is the best football in the world," he says.

In Ronaldo, it houses the best footballer in the world. In a year or two his value will have trebled to £300m if he continues to improve at his present rate. Bettering his scoring rate, though, might be asking the impossible.

"Last year the lads said to me I can't have another season like that after I scored 23 goals. Now I have 41. Well, next season I don't know what they are going to do. If I don't score 20 or 30, people will maybe start to criticise me. But I am ready for that. I want to prepare for my next season after the Euros. I want to work good and I want to do my best every time."

Against Chelsea, Ronaldo can match the Best.