Ladies and gentlemen, here is the real best player in the world. I know li’l Lionel Messi gets most of the love, and most of the trophies and nearly all the awards, but I will take Cristiano Ronaldo any day.

I have developed an appreciation for Ronaldo over the nearly three years I have lived in the UAE, where seemingly every game played by Real Madrid (Ronaldo) and Barcelona (Messi) is on basic cable. And re-run endlessly.

In short, I prefer Ronaldo over Messi because the former can score in any system and the latter seems to be a creation of (and benefactor from) Barcelona’s very specific short-passing game.

Ronaldo can score on free kicks rocketed from distance. He can finish at the front of a long breakaway. He is outstanding in the air, as the Czechs could tell you after his headed goal was the difference in a 1-0 quarter-final at Euro 2012 tonight. He presents a much more formidable physical presence, as well, and has been known to win a ball or two.

Messi is pretty much a one-trick pony, though he performs the trick quite often: He gets a diagonal ball in the box, and with his second or third touch he puts a short shot past the goalkeeper.

We did an unscientific study of his first 234 club goals a few months ago, and you can see that here. (As well as a video link to the 234.) And the overwhelming majority are short shots with no one between him and the goal aside from the keeper.

Neither player has enjoyed enormous success on the international stage, but it is safe to say that 1) Ronaldo has a far less impressive team around him, with Portugal, than Messi does, with Argentina and 2) that Ronaldo has pulled ahead with three goals in Portugal’s past two Euro games.

The highlights for Ronaldo: Euro 2004, played all six games (four as a starter; he was 19), scored two goals for a team that reached the final; 2006 World Cup, started every game into the semifinals, scoring a goal against Iran and the clinching PK in the quarterfinal shootout with England. Euro 2008, started three of four games, one goal for a team that went out to Germany in the quarterfinals. World Cup 2010, now the captain of his side, he started all four games but did not score. Euro 2012, both goals against Ukraine, the only goal versus the Czechs.

The highlights for Messi: 2006 World Cup, one goal (the last in a 6-0 win) in three games, all as a substitute (he was 18). 2007 Copa America, two goals in six matches of a runner-up campaign, and they came in 3-0 and 4-0 wins. 2008 Olympics, two goals in six matches for the gold-medalists. 2010 World Cup, zero goals in five matches. 2011 Copa America, zero goals in four matches.

Ronaldo is also more fun.

He clearly is incredibly vain. I marveled, anew, tonight over that exceedingly particular haircut, with a couple of pounds of “product” in it, and how not one strand came out of place, even after a collision with the goalkeeper Peter Cech. A recent post I saw referred to Ronaldo “and his six best friends, his abs.” He does as much posing and mugging and preening as any player in the world. Guy also is handsome. Messi is not, and he also looks perennially rumpled, as if he woke up in his uniform.

Ronaldo also is an exceptional athlete; he moves very quickly, despite an odd, choppy running style, and he can muscle opponents off the ball.

I believe this is a guy who could make an impact in any system. Messi cannot, as his spotty results with Argentina (as opposed to Barcelona) attest.

Ronaldo is in the middle of nearly everything Portugal does. They do not make the semifinals of Euro 2012 without him. They might not have qualified at all.

Argentina without Messi is still a very serious team.

Give me Ronaldo, please.