Goal.com World Player Of The Week: Cristiano Ronaldo – Real Madrid

Welcome to Goal.com's regular feature: Goal.com World Player of the Week. Each week our worldwide team of editors will put forward a selected candidate, as chosen by Goal.com International, who deserves recognition for achieving something special that matchday. It won't necessarily be the best player in the world - at least not usually - but whoever we nominate will have done something amazing. It might be for a particularly awesome performance or for something praiseworthy off the pitch - either way, the person in question deserves special attention...

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Goal.com World Player of the Week #75: Cristiano Ronaldo (Castrol Ranking: 2)
Club: Real Madrid
Country: Portugal
Age: 25
Role: Winger
Achievement: Led Madrid to victories over Milan and Racing Santander

A big-game flop? Not anymore. On Tuesday evening against Milan in the Champions League in Real Madrid’s first big test this season, star player Cristiano Ronaldo turned on the style and dispelled all notions that he can play at his best only against the smaller sides.

The Portugal international had started the 2010-11 campaign on a slow note as he was struggling to score goals and trying too hard to get them. But on Tuesday the former Ballon d’Or winner showed his maturity and destroyed Milan without looking even frustrated or anxious.

Ronaldo’s 13th minute free-kick rocketed into the Rossoneri net and seconds later he authored Mesut Oezil’s deflected strike. The 25-year-old could have added more to his tally as his runs down the flanks and penetration scared the Milan defenders out of their wits.

On Saturday evening, with Barcelona having already defeated Real Zaragoza 2-0 to go top of the standings in the Spanish Primera Division, Madrid needed maximum points to regain the possession of pole position. Which los Blancos did in remarkable style and once again their talisman – Ronaldo – was at the heart of it all.

The former Manchester United winger accomplished his hat-trick on 48 minutes and seven minutes later struck his fourth from the penalty spot. His goals weren’t exactly children of his own creation and owed more to team play than anything else, but for a side that played with just one out-and-out forward (Gonzalo Higuain), Ronaldo would often feature as an ‘auxiliary striker’ and eke out space and positions for himself at the Bernabeu.

Ronaldo’s four goals means that he now has 10 from eight matches in La Liga, five more than his nearest challengers for the Pichichi Trophy. Interestingly, the Portugal international is also the joint leading assist-provider in the league at the moment.

The man who was initially struggling to find the net now seems to find the target without even looking at it. Suddenly Ronaldo is great again, if ever he wasn't…

Congratulations to Cristiano Ronaldo, Goal.com's 75th World Player of the Week!

Narrowly missing out on Goal.com’s top weekly award is a certain Claudio Pizarro, who carved his name on the walls of history this weekend as he became the highest foreign goalscorer ever in the German Bundesliga. The Peru international striker scored Werder Bremen’s fourth goal against Borussia Moenchengladbach in their 4-1 victory on Saturday – it was his 134th strike and one that saw him better Giovane Elber, the former Brazil international forward who played for VfB Stuttgart and Bayern Munich in the last 1990s and early noughties.

Honourable Mentions

Samuel Eto’o – Inter (Castrol Ranking: 85)

The Cameroon international has been arguably Inter’s best player so far this season and last week he was once again leading them to safety. Eto’o, currently the joint top scorer in Serie A, netted twice and gave two assists in the Nerazzurri’s 4-3 win against Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League in midweek and also secured a 1-1 draw with Sampdoria in the league at the weekend with his sixth league goal of the campaign.

Lionel Messi – Barcelona (Castrol Ranking: 1)

The Argentina international seems to be scoring all of Barcelona’s goals at the moment as he netted four times in two matches last week. Messi was on target twice in their 2-0 triumph over FC Copenhagen in the Champions League in midweek and then on Saturday the 23-year-old scored both the goals in their 2-0 victory over Real Zaragoza in the Spanish Primera Division.

Jonathan Reis- PSV (Castrol Ranking: N/A)

The Brazilian striker scored the winner for the Dutch giants against Debrecen in the Europa League on Thursday as PSV won 2-1. At the weekend Reis scored his first-ever hat-trick as the Dutch Eredivisie leaders thumped Feyenoord 10-0 in Eindhoven.

Gareth Bale – Tottenham Hotspur (Castrol Ranking: 78)

The highly rated Wales international displayed his best performance for Tottenham so far this season against Inter at San Siro in the Champions League in midweek. With the reigning European champions 4-0 up, Spurs looked like they were going to crumble like a parchment but then stepped up Bale.

The 21-year-old scored a scintillating hat-trick and not only did it avoid a humiliation for the Premier League side, it also gave them a chimera of a draw in Milan. It was not just Bale’s goals, it was his performance and ability to take on the world on his own that was so very impressive.

Samir Nasri - Arsenal (Castrol Ranking: 89)

The France international was in breathtaking form this week and scored twice. Nasri was on target in Arsenal's 5-1 defeat of Shakhtar Donetsk at the Emirates in the Champions League in midweek and provided a scintillating back-spin pass for Marouane Chamakh to score the Gunners' fifth goal of the match. Then on Sunday Nasri opened the scoring against Manchester City at Eastlands in a massive Premier League clash and also put Nicklas Bendtner through on 88 minutes to complete a 3-0 win.

Leave your notes of congratulations for Cristiano Ronaldo below, or discuss who else deserves a place in the sun this week...

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