Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo believes he’s better than Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi and says that trophies do not have any impact in deciding who the best player in the world is at the moment.
Ronaldo, the Real Madrid’s all time leading goal scorer, spoke to Spanish newspaper El Pais back in August – the interview was withheld until now to promote his new documentary titled Ronaldo.
We have an excerpt from that interview where he gives his opinion on Messi’s success, as translated by AS:
It doesn’t bother me. If you look back over my past eight years, I’ve always been at the peak; and that is difficult. Name me someone else who has done it? After that, being No.1 or No.2 is a matter of small details, such as if you win trophies or not. Perhaps for you, Messi is the best; in my head, I am the best – and everyone should think that about ourselves. That is why I have been able to achieve so much in my career.
It was hard for me to watch Messi picking up several Ballon d’Ors. I’d be thinking: “Why should I go to the gala?”
Both Ronaldo and Messi are exceptional footballers, and are arguably the two greatest players of this decade, but football fans, pundits and media often engage in the fruitless debate – who is better between the two?
Messi is more artistic and a brilliant team player apart from being a great goal scorer. Ronaldo, who started his career as a swashbuckling and flamboyant winger, has turned out to be a great goal scorer at Real Madrid where he smashed all the goal-scoring records within just seven years stay at Bernabeu.
The best thing about Ronaldo is he has always challenged himself to prove his excellence by moving out of his comfort zone. The boy from Madeira, left his home town town club Sporting at a tender age of 17 to join Manchester United, one of the biggest clubs in the world, to replace an iconic figure, David Beckham at Old Trafford, and he did emulate him in some style!
He won everything at United, and could have stayed there for rest of his career (surely he would have added more titles, fame, glory etc) but he went on to prove himself at a different platform by joining Real Madrid.
Messi on the other hand has been a dyed in the wool Barcelona. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that he is doing so well at Barca having been at the club since he was a kid, although such sympathies border mainly on the subjective levels and doesn’t really make up a case for argument for either of the two.
Ronaldo’s new documentary comes out on November 9.
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