I have always taken "world class" to mean world XI. By application of the above definition, I would say that the only player from Man Utd who could make a world XI would be Ronaldo. Agree? EDIT: and I do not think that anyone from the English National side is currently good enough to make a world XI and therefore good enough to be classified as world class.
To be a world class player you need more than 18 good games under your belt. Ronaldo is having a good season - and I supposed it's not surprising people want to make ridiculous statements about him based on that. But when it comes to reality..... I don't know, I think Gerrard and Terry are World Class.
On current form, Ronaldo is world class but he will have to keep playing at his current form for a few seasons, before he can be truly called a world class player. As for the national team, I don't think anyone is world class but there are a lot of players, who are just short of being world class Rooney, Terry and Gerrard being 3 examples.
The thing is, people have been saying "oh this is his only good season" but he's been playing and scoring like this for Portugal for a good while now, probably 2 years. I'd rather have a tight, solid team of role players than one superstar and a load of rag-tag players. Or a dysfunctional group of star's like Stamford Bridge right now.