Where do you put Zidanes?
Messi v Ronaldo | Contains double your daily salt allowance
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Where do you put Zidanes?
Messi able to create the magic and chances for himself is because he is in the perfect system that built for him with the near perfect component of players like Iniesta and Suarez or Neymar and Xavi ... not just any player but perfect players for the perfect system.
Ronaldo is in a good team but not good enough as Barca - not to mention his time in Real is bit wild with managers and playing system change at a whim
Its telling that Messi struggling to replicate his magic in national colors even Argentina players are no slouch
Same with Ronaldo - he drag and puff with more inferior national team mates but he still able to win the Euro and top scorer for his country
So for me it will be always Ronaldo
I'll digress further (apologies, Mods) and say although Steph is one of the greatest shooters I've ever seen, without the advent of Smallball and Superteams (LeBron is very guilty here, also), it wouldn't even be discussed. LeBron is just too good an all-round player to make a comparison legitimate. Imagine a pick-up game of this generation. You have first pick. Who do you pick? I'd pick Kevin Durrant over Steph (and I love Steph!), let alone LeBron.
It's not fixed, but Ronaldo isn't going to take the #1 spot from Messi with a few more Real Madrid or even another Portugal success.
For me it comes down to who is the more awe inspiring & unique. Who can do things the others simply can't... I understand that some of my personal criteria is incredibly subjective, but I'm pretending otherwise. Ronaldo is a phenomenal player, but if I'm going to sit down and watch a few football vids, there's quite a few names that'd pop up before I think "Hmm, I'm gonna go watch a CR7 compilation!"
It’s not bizarre. Messi has been at Barca since age 13. He’s struck a fine chemistry with the majority of Barca players that graduated from La Masia. That must count for something.
Besides, Messi has always had 3 of the top 5 players in the world as team mates while Ronaldo had to put up with O’Shea & Alan Smith in the midfield. This trend continued throughout his time in Spain when Xavi & Iniesta were the best players in Europe apart from Messi/Ronaldo.
Ronaldo came to England and pretty much won everything including Ballon d’Or. He conquered England after 6 years. He went to Spain and he’s conquered Spain. What more do you want from him?
Messi can’t even win Copa America in Argentina. A feat regular players like Cavani, Suarez, Forlan, Sanchez, Robinho, etc have with aplomb. Ronaldo won the Euros - a much more tougher competition to win considering Portugal’s strength among the footballing nations in Europe.
It’s fair to say Messi hasn’t won anything if he’s not wearing Barca’s shirt. Ronaldo has won with Man Utd, Real Madrid and Portugal. Only Barca fans or those who are mesmerised by meaningless dribbles think Messi is the best player. If we swap what both players have achieved for club/country, this wouldn’t be a debate.
Ronaldo >>>> Messi!
More votes on Ronaldo after Juventus match and that goal 
Messi's goal vs Madrid in 2011 UCL Semis is by far Messi's best goal. People just don't realize how good it was.
Look at that goal and compare it with the other Messi goals. It's Real Madrid. In a Champions League Semi-finals.
Look at the play. There's NO ONE except Messi in there. He doesn't even have teammates around to distract the defenders.
It's surreal. The arial view is ridiculous.
Best big game (not big will below) CL goal will always be Zizou's volley for me unless Messi or Cristiano score a ridiculous winner in a final.
It’s not similar.
Ronaldo is the only player who has scored more goals in the KO state of the CL than the group stage. The biggest games are his bread & butter.
Since the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo from Man Utd, he has scored 104 CL Goals, while the entire Man Utd team since 2009 have scored only 99 goals.
Stop disrespecting Cristiano. He is god!
I don’t think it’s an underrated goal but in the context of the game, that first messi goal killed that tie. Watch the full game back, and watch the 10 seconds before messi plays the ball to Busquets. Madrid players walking about dejected, barca players barely walking themselves to make space for a pass, the tie was mentally over. I rate his goal against Bilbao higher because it was 0-0 and every single defender he went past was 100% tuned in and had no negative feeling during the match up until that point. Similarly tonight, ronaldo did that against a team who had been dominating proceedings and effectively killed the tie. Right before that was the loudest Juve fans had been in support of their team, they were the more likely to score next.
Personally I don't think Messi is the greatest Argentinian of all time. He is a genius and the longevity of his club career are impressive. He rarely carries the Argentinian national team on his shoulders like Maradona did. At his absolute best, and he produced it at a couple of world cups, Maradona was better than Messi for me. God knows what he would have achieved if he has played his career at a club like Barca.
He got lucky with the new rules.
Beautiful but not the best player
Absolutely spot on punditry here
Yes, a guy who has as many CL trophies as Ronaldo, has had a much better Finals performance on average than Ronaldo is someone you can't compare Ronaldo to.
No surprise you are getting blasted in this thread, some of the most embarrassing posts in this entire thread. You're better than this man, come on.
BS, Ronaldo has had the FAR more functional team in recent years, he's got the best midfield behind him for SEVERAL years now. This year's Barca were supposed to be the worst team they've had for the decade but Messi single handedl yhas them FIFTEEN points ahead of Madrid in the league who were heavy favorites to walk La Liga. Messi is the service, he plays for Barcelona while Madrid play for Ronaldo. Ronaldo needs the services to get going or else he's isolated in the box and can't do anything outside of it. Messi is the engine of the entire Barca team. Barca without him are MUCH worse than Madrid without Ronaldo. It's not even close.
He is an amazing offensive player, but he's not even in the same league as LeBron if we are talking all time. He has NEVER won Finals MVP, has had more let down games in the Final than amazing ones and is atrocious on defense whereas LeBron is fantastic. LeBron is a triple double machine just about every night whereas If Curry's shot isn't falling (and most of the time it is) he doesn't really offer much else. LeBron is a MUCH better facilitator than Curry is. When he left Cleveland the first time, they became lottery team, when he rejoined them they were title contenders. After he left Miami they barely make the playoffs, when he was with Miami they won back to back titles.
Remove Curry from the Warriors and they'd still make the Finals last year. Durant was their best performer in the playoffs and the Finals.
Ronaldo also lost in penalties with Portugal to Chile, he wouldn't be able to win the copa emerica even if Portugal was to able to play in that tournament. He didn't even play in the final and Portugal still won. Have you not seen ho wbad Argentina look without Messi? Ronaldo has also been terrible in the world cups and Portugal have been let downs, more so than Argentina. His Euro win is great, but it was flukey with one of the easiest paths in the Euro history falling on the most fortunate side of the bracket possible. His path to the Euros wasn't tough competition at all, and when Portugal did face the toughest competition, he was a non factor with his injury and Portugal still won it all. Their defense carried them as much as Ronaldo did. Ronaldo only had 3 good games in the Euros.
After Ronaldo left United they still managed to win the PL, and you make it sound like he was playing with bums the whole time. He had the GOAT manager too. You also say Ronaldo conquered Spain, yet he's only won La Liga twice in that span, despite Madrid having the most expensive team in the world during that time the first couple years after he joined.
You need to understand how football works and stop playing so much Fifa to simply say Messi does "meaningless dribbles" I understand Ronaldo can't dribble anymore and is an elite poacher but you need to actually watch the game to understand Messi's impact because it's been severely lost on you.
To me Messi is the better player, don't see how you can discuss that.
Ronaldo can compete for being the greatest. As I said earlier, for me he's the greatest ever in terms of UCL.
For example Messi will never be Greater than Maradona for us, but for me he's easily the best player Argentina has ever produced.
Ronaldo can compete for being the greatest. As I said earlier, for me he's the greatest ever in terms of UCL.
For example Messi will never be Greater than Maradona for us, but for me he's easily the best player Argentina has ever produced.
Was he ever actually unlikeable as a player? Other than what comes with the territory of being a part of Chelsea, I mean.
They weren't second best, they were second best by far until the red card. Their midfield had a poor game, they were losing too many balls and Juve was escaping pressure very easily. Juve had more and better chances.
It was similar to the first Madrid-PSG game but even worse
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ahah not at all.
The only chance Juve had all match was the Higuain shot blocked by Navas.
Real was easily the better team and Ronaldo the best player.
So if this is true then why are Madrid currently 3rd in a two horse leauge? Clearly they can't be that functional. And if Messi singlehandedly dragged them to 1st by himself, why has Suarez scored 22 league goals? Better individuals doesn't mean better team or better set up. Not that Ronaldo has had it bad throughout his career but I think Messi has had it better. Yet Ronaldo has still scored more than him so far. If he's "on another planet" then surely he'd have better numbers as well.
As much as those two are an anomaly, I feel it won't be long before we see the next all-time superstar that will defy the stats like they have. They've pushed the boundaries of what we think was possible as far as consistency and overwhelming performances, but now that those boundaries have been pushed by those two, I wouldn't be surprised if we see the next Messi/CR7 sooner than we think now that the whole world got to see what is possible.
I hope so, but based on what I see right now, that player is not currently participating in professional football.
I’m always on the Messi camp and cannot possibly comprehend anyone calling Ronaldo as an equal but I’ll just take a moment to applaud the goals today, his movement was incredible and that goal was absolute genius, his all round game is not close to what is used to be pre 2014 but he’s perfected a couple of things and that way he has managed to keep going at the very top
Definitely among the greatest players
Definitely among the greatest players
They're both good.
End thread.
End thread.
Messi has more raw talent.
But for me, Ronaldo has more intangibles. He's the better goalscorer/attacker, but what places him over Messi is his sheer determination, drive, persistence and clutch gene.
He is the ultimate big game performer. The Champions League should be renamed The Ronaldo League.
But for me, Ronaldo has more intangibles. He's the better goalscorer/attacker, but what places him over Messi is his sheer determination, drive, persistence and clutch gene.
He is the ultimate big game performer. The Champions League should be renamed The Ronaldo League.
I hope you don't judge me too harshly, me being a Barca fan and all.
Both players can be difficult to compare and I've no problem when some come down the middle and say it's who you prefer, but personally I'd say Messi is the better footballer by far, I'm not as interested who the 'greatest' is, that discussion goes nowhere.
Firstly, Messi's skill set relies less on the rest of his team performing well. Getting into good scoring positions as Ronaldo does is not a skill people who watch/play football normally elevate above dribbling and accurate passing, despite some of the attempts to revise what makes a better football player on this thread by Ronaldo fans, dribbling is useless now apparently. You are just wrong.
Also, you can talk about Ronaldo's positioning movement and finishing all you want, is Messi worse at these things? Why don't Ronaldo fans ever bring up Messi's positioning and finishing? They must be at least comparably skilled at these, especially as Messi scores a similar amount of goals, more from outside the box, whilst playing a deeper role and with more creative responsibility.
The things that Ronaldo is best at, Messi is still better at them, apart from free kicks...oh that seems to have stopped, he never was better at free kicks, ok heading then.
Both players can be difficult to compare and I've no problem when some come down the middle and say it's who you prefer, but personally I'd say Messi is the better footballer by far, I'm not as interested who the 'greatest' is, that discussion goes nowhere.
Firstly, Messi's skill set relies less on the rest of his team performing well. Getting into good scoring positions as Ronaldo does is not a skill people who watch/play football normally elevate above dribbling and accurate passing, despite some of the attempts to revise what makes a better football player on this thread by Ronaldo fans, dribbling is useless now apparently. You are just wrong.
Also, you can talk about Ronaldo's positioning movement and finishing all you want, is Messi worse at these things? Why don't Ronaldo fans ever bring up Messi's positioning and finishing? They must be at least comparably skilled at these, especially as Messi scores a similar amount of goals, more from outside the box, whilst playing a deeper role and with more creative responsibility.
The things that Ronaldo is best at, Messi is still better at them, apart from free kicks...oh that seems to have stopped, he never was better at free kicks, ok heading then.
Odd that Ronaldo's transition as a player has become a source of criticism. Early on during his Madrid career, he was a superb all round player and dribbler. Now he's an insane goal scorer. I do agree Messi is probably better, but I find it laughable that some just dismiss the debate as though it is unquestionable as to who's better.
Dybala's shot blocked by Ramos right at the start, Navas great save on Higuain, Chiellini's header from a corner, Dybala's deflected freekick inches wide, plus a few other half chances... how the hell was Madrid easily the better team in that match?
You're right, on his early days people would bring him down for not scoring as much for Real Madrid (among other things) and it was very clear from the beginning it was more a matter of not liking him as player/person and not liking the team he plays for.
Well, there are some promising young players out there, and more to come. Keep in mind, neither CR7 or Messi ever hinted they'd ever be this good when they were younger, CR7 especially.
Looks like Cristiano Ronaldo is better there, not even a contest.
Real Madrid would’ve had a hard time getting past both PSG and Juve without Ronaldo imo.
Also the Curry and Lebron comparison is slightly off, since Curry hasn’t been around for the same amount of time tha Lebron has. And honestly if i were to draw parallels, I’d say Messi would be Curry here (since there are very few who can do what he does) and Ronaldo Lebron.
I insist. It is nonsense. Those guys are this consistently good because of an inner drive and desire to be the greatest. Their rivalry is mere icing on the cake.
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