I see him having Drogba type upside. Similar size (Altidore-6'1 175; Drogba-6'2 185). Both have a great speed/stength combo. Altidore has shown flashes of using his body well which Drogba mastered. Both good in the air. Both put a ton of velocity on their shots. Obviously Altidore needs to improve his first touch, but he is only 19. This one is more to where he will end up among the all time greats. He has been the best player in the world since he was 20/21. He just moved to the easiest major league, where his stats will be inflated. He is dubbed as the next billionaire athlete (before LeBron). Skill wise, might have the best set of skills ever. Amazing at set pieces. Great size for a soccer player. Amazing pace. Some of the best ball skills in the world. I think by the time he retires, he will be considered one of the top three players ever, maybe the best.
So what isn't true that I wrote? Just because he is a once a generation type of player doesn't mean you need to hate on him. But since you are a Barca fan, you mad since you know it is the last year you will win a major trophy for a few years.
Depends if this generation includes Zidane and Brazil Ronaldo (in his prime). IMO, Brazil Ronaldo is the greatest player ever, his combination of size, speed, and skill are unmatched. Pele and to some extent Maradona, played when the pace of the game was much slower and it was basically just Europe and South America having good teams. For PSV, he scored 42 goals in 46 league games and 52 in 57 total appearances, and that's when there wasn't a big discrepancy between the Euro leagues as there is today. He then went on to score 47 goals in 49 games for Barca at 20/21 y/o Zidane was always one step ahead of everyone on the field mentally, and he was slow as hell and not offer much defensively, but he would dominate games.
I tend to agree with this. Altidore has a lot of potential, but unfortunately he is not getting a lot of PT and Hull may be relegated. The comparison to Drogba is good but Jozy needs to work on his upper body strength while maintaning his quickness. Drogba is a rare combination of power and speed and that is what makes him so great. He is not one dimensional. Also, Drogba's playmaking ability goes very unnoticed because of all the goals he scores, but he has created a lot of plays for other players and now with Anelka playing beside him he has had a couple of assists as well. As far as Cristiano Ronaldo goes, he has been playing top form soccer for a few years now and that is not easy to do. He is the best player in the world at the moment and if can keep his form while avoiding serious injuries, he could be in the debate for best player of his generation. I still maintain that Ronaldo (Brazil) is the best player I have seen play when he was in top form (PSV, Barcelona, Inter). Ronaldinho when he was at his peak (didnt last very long) was playing better than Messi, Cristiano or Kaka have ever played also. One thing that Cristiano needs to improve is his passing and vision, he is not a true stiker and with all the attention he generates and demands he has opportunities to set up his teammates but fails a lot of times or he opts to take on 3 defenders at once. One last thing I would say about Cristiano is that all players that are considered great have had international success as well with their national teams and that is where he needs the most work. Portugal is a very talented squad and with the best player in the world along with Pepe, Carvalho, Simao, Deco and Nani just to name a few there should not be any reason why they should struggle to qualify for a World Cup of perform badly at other international tournaments. All the other greats won titles with their respective national teams: Zidane, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Maradona, etc.