Cristiano Ronaldo V/s Lionel Messi

Cristiano Ronaldo V/s Lionel Messi

European golden boy vs Latin American prodigy

Bad boy vs Baby face

Arrogant Prick vs Innocent Shit

Business man vs Tax Fraudster
National Hero vs National Coward

Its a debate no matter how you put it in the headlines will be never ending, both guys are definitely legends of modern football and have defined this era of football. They are locked in a rivalry that makes both of them do unrealistic things on the football pitch all the time. Thousands of people have written about their never ending rivalry over the last decade, millions have their opinions heard in countless polls, everyday football fans have their debates on this topic, now let me shoot my opinion on why Cristiano Ronaldo is the definitely the better player, the better guy, & more importantly the better role model (despite his arrogant image).

Lets start with matters on pitch: On the pitch with Messi & Ronaldo, I like to draw parallels of their rivalry with another legendary rivalry of Roger Federer & Rafa Nadal. Messi is magical, elegant, with ball at his feet stuck like a magnet, with shot placement full of finesse just like Roger, While Ronaldo is a physical beast, the perfect human body molded by an 'obsession for perfection' just like title of his biography, and shots full of more raw power than Brock Lesner just like Rafa. Both Rafa & Ronaldo are not as 'gifted' as their counterparts but they are the ones that are more human & come out on top with their hard work, determination, and again their 'obsession for perfection'. To me this makes them more admirable than their rivals, that even though they might not posses the natural talent that their opponents have they still come out on top due to their sheer will and hard work. At the end of the day all four of these incredible superstars will have their own plethora of trophies and records but the ones that belong to Rafa & Ronaldo will be the ones achieved through what makes most of the humans standout & not just god given talent. Here is a quote from a letter recently penned by him that perfectly illustrates his desire to be great:

“At first, winning trophies was very emotional for me. I remember when I won my first Champions League trophy at Manchester, it was an overwhelming feeling. Same thing with my first Ballon d’Or. But my dreams kept getting bigger. That’s the point of dreams, right? I had always admired Madrid, and I wanted a new challenge. I wanted to win trophies at Madrid, and break all the records, and become a club legend.

Over the past eight years, I have achieved incredible things at Madrid. But to be honest, winning trophies later on in my career has become a different kind of emotion. Especially in these last two years. At Madrid, if you don’t win everything, other people consider it a failure. This is the expectation of greatness. This is my job,”  writes Ronaldo.

Now lets get to the trophies: Well both of them have won a lot of collective trophies and individual awards and I wil not het into enlisting each one or throwing all of their incredible stats towards you I will just state how Ronaldo is ahead of Messi. Ronaldo has that Euro 2016 trophy that moves him ahead of Messi who has lost three international finals by performing the great disappearing act in all of them or appearing to miss penalties in them. Also where Ronaldo's trophies add more value is by the fact that he has won absolutely everything at both Manchester & Real while Messi has won everything only at Barcelona.

Now while Ronaldo & Messi are both winners on the pitch, it is Ronaldo who gets a lot of flack for his off pitch behaviour & Messi is treated as if he is god's gift to humanity. That critisim is again more or less blown out of proportion by the media mostly because Ronaldo doesn't treat them like they are some special beings and not normal people, he repeatdly calls them out when they blow out of proportion little mistakes that he makes, & doesn't stand by & be bullied by anyone be it fans or journalists. Here is one of his quotes shutting down the haters:  
  "Those who always criticise Cristiano are going to have put their guitar back in its case.” - Ronaldo told the media after winning his fourth Champions League title
Now moving on to Messi a.k.a. Mr. Tax Fraudster, now same people who criticize Ronaldo for being outspoken will not whisper a thing about how Messi is a convicted felon who is not in jail only because Spanish law doesn't send people with non violent crimes with a sentence of less than 24 month to jail. Now what kind of role model sets an example of stealing governments money? Well now they will come at me by saying Ronaldo too is under investigation, to them I will say he is not convicted yet and even if he is later convicted still he will join Messi in being a criminal who is already one.

The Final act of cowardice that makes Messi a disgrace off the pitch(besides being a criminal) is the fact that after under performing in Third international final in a row he just up and left his National team to dry by announcing his retirement & in the process shifting the focus from all the blame that would have been put on him for not delivering in the Copa America 2016 final to the shock retirement announcement that he will come out of once the dust has settled within a matter of months. This is the difference between Ronaldo & Messi, Messi after his low moment decided to threaten everyone that he will quit while Ronaldo always shuts up his critics when he is down fully aware that he will make them all eat their words soon enough. After Messi had won everything & collected 4 Balon Dd'ors in a row nobody expected Ronaldo who at that moment just had one Champions League win & one Balon D'or to catch up with him & how did he react, he won three more Champions Leagues & Balon D'ors while adding Euro 2016 with them to make himself great & leave Messi behind to do the catching up. That is how he reacted to when he was at a low and was not winning much. While Messi might win a World Cup or Copa America in the coming years he will still be a Tax Fraud & a coward that left his team after they had suffered arguably their most devastating loss. This is one of the major difference between Ronaldo & Messi that Ronaldo is just adored in Portugal while Messi is ahem... lets say topic of debate in Argentina.

Well to conclude it all let me just put in a conclusion written by someone else who puts it in better words than I would have

You can read @AmirAbdulazeez 's views here: https://www.thecable.ng/messi-vs-ronaldo-philosophical-view , even though his views are a lot different from mine and seems to value Messi's natural ability more than Ronaldo's hard work & dedication.



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