Today I’m writing my 50th post as The Penalty King! And to commemorate this occasion I’ve decided to give my answer and opinion on one of the biggest questions in football. Who’s better: Messi or Ronaldo?
Now I’ll start by giving a rundown of what everybody in football already knows. These two are the two best players in the world. People have been trying to force Neymar and Suarez into the picture as of late but to be frank Ronaldo and Messi are about three steps up in quality over the next best player…
Five years on the trot CR7 has scored 50+ goals...and somehow people still doubt his ability and put him below Neymar. How can a player need to justify himself after a prolific record like that? Players like Aguero and Ibrahimovic haven’t ever come close to a record like that but are considered the best in their divisions.
Personally I think it’s Messi fan’s just coming up with new reasons to say Ronaldo is shit. If you listen to a Messi fan they’ll tell you about how Ronaldo just stands up front, doesn’t like big games, is losing his pace...And even with this Ronaldo has outscored him two years in a row and is currently on 5 goals more than Messi having played the same amount of games.
Messi fans also like to use the phrase “he’s the best player ever.” Now this is a ridiculous statement for me as he’s not even the best Argentinian ever. Diego Maradona did everything that Messi did but in much worse conditions.
He could take on entire teams as he did against England in World Cup ‘86, he did it on knackered pitches, with heavier boots and balls and he did it all while off his fucking head with whatever he’d lined up for himself that morning…
This doesn’t mean though that Messi is a bad player, just for he’s not as good as Diego. As for Ronaldo I’d probably put him just below Eusebio as Portugal’s best ever player. Another player who, like Maradona, dragged his team to a respectable world cup finish. If they’d not lost out to eventual winners England in ‘66, they’d have been favourite’s to be the German’s at Wembley.
As well as Ronaldo has done he’s not really had that real impact at an international level. For me Euro 2016 is his last chance as I think the World Cup is a little too far from his grasp, you need a great squad for a tournament like that. The Euro’s how ever has a lower class of talent in their and I imagine Ronaldo will be aiming for at least a semi final finish.
As for Lionel, his international best so far was losing out in the World Cup final back in 2014. For me he was incredibly quiet in the game, looking to be more of a creative player as Di Maria had been injured in the quarter-finals against Belgium. He have more of a chance at World Cup ‘20 as Argentina have a stronger side compared to Portugal.
Now some people, like Gary Neville for example, say they can’t compare them as they are two completely different players. He acts as if their comparing Manuel Neuer to Jonathan Walters or something. Messi and Ronaldo are both goalscorers, have amazing technical and physical strengths as well as sharp footballing minds...they’re not that different.
I’ll start with Messi, this kid has got an amazing footballing mind, the ability to control play from any place on the field and with any players around him. Match this with his spectacular technical ability and you have the perfect creative player. The thing that separates him from other creative start like Ozil is that fact that Messi also has an abundance of goals to his game.
Players like Ozil and Payet come deep to see more of the ball if needs be. Messi could come short, start the attack and before you know it he’s in the opposition’s box and the ball is in the back of the net. Obviously Ozil and Payet do score their fair share of goals but they’re a long way off 50+ a season haha.
Ronaldo’s quality used to rely heavily on his pace and power and determination.Over the last few years though he has changed from a more creative player to just an out and out goalscoring machine! He still has that yard of pace he needs as well as being ridiculously strong, the ability to outmuscle most defenders is a huge benefit to his game.
Technically Ronaldo probably isn’t as good as Messi. His control isn’t as good as the Argentinians but his speed more than makes up for it. Ronaldo’s mental attributes are for me on par with Messi, The runs Ronaldo makes are incredibly difficult to defend against and the engine he has on him doesn’t help the opposition, he never stops sprinting.
~ Side note: I’m not say Ronaldo can’t control just that his control is just not as good as Messi’s, but as I stated it doesn’t have to be ~
But anyways it’s time for my big reveal. I think the best player in the world is (drum roll please) Cristiano Ronaldo. I’m more than sure people will disagree but here is my reasoning behind it:
He fit’s any football team. He fits any style of play. He fits any position, any role and can make an impact at any point of a game. Messi I can only see him playing at a club that keeps it on the deck where as Ronaldo could have played under Tony Pulis at Stoke, as a centre forward or a centre half and done an equally brilliant job.
For me due to his physical power he would easily be scoring 60+ in any League Two team whereas I’d see Messi having to drop to a deeper more creative role. He’d probably still score 30 from this position as well as getting about 30+ assists…
Funny thing is though I’d rather have Lionel Messi over CR7 at my favourite club Sheffield Wednesday. We’ve been struggling to create real clear cut chances at Wednesday and although Ronaldo can score any type of goal, I just think Messi would fit in well with our current passing style of play.
~ and by any type of goal, of course I mean headers. Fun fact of Messi’s 33 league goals this season, not a single one was scored using his head…~
Last thing I really want to say regarding these two is that we all know that Messi’s talent is all natural, he’s a guy who won’t know what to do until he gets into a situation and suddenly his Footy-Sense starts tingling and he does one bit of skill that beats five men.
Ronaldo on the other hand works extremely hard to lift himself to Lionel Messi’s level and in recent years just seems set on trying to exceed him. Whether you prefer Messi or Ronaldo you have to admire the Argentine’s natural ability and the Portuguese's work rate.
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Cheers for reading.
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