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.