They went short. But I’ll take it.IFFHS has named Messi the best player of the decade. Debate settled
Messi v Ronaldo | Contains double your daily salt allowance
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"Best man player" 
I'd swap Suarez for Buffon. He should be on that list in some place. He is definitely some man player.
Yeh but Ronaldo won best player of century in another award not long ago, so there you go.IFFHS has named Messi the best player of the decade. Debate settled
By the *checks notes* Dubai Globe Soccer
PSG owners with a ridiculous bias only awarding Messi one Dubai d’Or for the entire decade. Because you know, clearly Messi was second rate for 9/10 years in the 2010s.
Search for Globe Soccer Awards and Google will auto-suggest ”Globe Soccer Awards owned by Ronaldo” meaning many people think he has an ownership stake himself
Yeah, I think I’ll go with the Ballon d’Or superiority and the numerous pro players saying Messi is the goat
Best player of the decade my foot. While one man was getting dumped out by the likes of Roma( "who incidentally play in a 2nd tier league") in the CL, one was spanking the likes of Bayern, Juve, Atleti. Player of the decade my foot.
Personally I like to form my own opinions.By the *checks notes* Dubai Globe Soccer
PSG owners with a ridiculous bias only awarding Messi one Dubai d’Or for the entire decade. Because you know, clearly Messi was second rate for 9/10 years in the 2010s.
Search for Globe Soccer Awards and Google will auto-suggest ”Globe Soccer Awards owned by Ronaldo” meaning many people think he has an ownership stake himself
Yeah, I think I’ll go with the Ballon d’Or superiority and the numerous pro players saying Messi is the goat
I don't really give 2 hoots what pros say.
You just have to look at the Scholes vs Gerrard vs lampard debate
Cristiano could've won 10 CLs this decade and I'd still go for Messi within a heartbeat. There's things spread sheets don't tell you. At least not the ordinary ones.
By the *checks notes* Dubai Globe Soccer
PSG owners with a ridiculous bias only awarding Messi one Dubai d’Or for the entire decade. Because you know, clearly Messi was second rate for 9/10 years in the 2010s.
Search for Globe Soccer Awards and Google will auto-suggest ”Globe Soccer Awards owned by Ronaldo” meaning many people think he has an ownership stake himself
Yeah, I think I’ll go with the Ballon d’Or superiority and the numerous pro players saying Messi is the goat
Of course I am just messing around, it’s merely response to IFFHS award you’ve just quoted, which itself is only a statistical organization with regarded as one of the least reputable award-giving body around. They have less than 1 year of history in giving out any footballing awards, no one take it seriously. Least to say Globe soccer awards has held large ceremony every year inviting many football stars. In comparison, IFFHS award is far worse, no one attend it and no one give a shite about it.
They are both unprestigious awards. But at the globe soccer awards player of the Century, Salah was voted 2nd and Lionel Messi 3rd. It tells you all you need to know. For the 21st century it's either Ronaldo or Messi first. Salah shouldn't even be in the top 10. Also I don't give a toss about any award that uses the word soccer instead of Football.
Sure, I never really take both award seriously. it’s both ridiculous award IMHO.
Meanwhile IFFHS has listed Serie A (Italy) as the strongest league in world in 2020. This is just as ridiculous as any globe soccer award has given to anyone.
Serie A is currently no.1 league in the world, as credited by IFFHS, take a min to think about it.
I completely agree.
Ronaldo is second, not bad at all.
Surely Bale achieved more than Neymar though? 4 CL's against Neymar's 1. And also won a couple of La Liga's and was voted PL's best player in 2012/13.IFFHS has named Messi the best player of the decade. Debate settled
and now Ronaldo gets dumped by the likes of Lyon and plays in a second tier league as you put it
Those are team accomplishments (other than the PL’s best player). I think most people would accept that Neymar has been a better player than Bale over the last decade? Or maybe people here disagree? I don’t know.....
So, who here actually has either of these two as their favourite ever player ?
For me it’s Messi easily
I don't know how people watch Messi play and say CR is still better. Like, he has got the most goals and most assists in the past decade. He passes the eye test and the stat test. I feel like he is a victim of his own high standards. The guy got 91 goals and 28 assists in a calendar year for feck sake.
I hate him for the 2 CL finals and Barcelona in general, but I respect him for his ability. As good as CR has been over his career, it is not a shame to accept that there is someone out there who is better than you. For me Messi is in the Pele/Maradona tier and CR is in the Cryuff/Beckenbauer tier.
I hate him for the 2 CL finals and Barcelona in general, but I respect him for his ability. As good as CR has been over his career, it is not a shame to accept that there is someone out there who is better than you. For me Messi is in the Pele/Maradona tier and CR is in the Cryuff/Beckenbauer tier.
What are these "tiers"?, like honestly how are they judged?.And how on Earth is Messi in a "tier", table or whatever else to Ronaldo?, makes no sense however you look at it.
Because people overvalue and overrate a players dribbling ability.
People love the fact that messi used to embarass his opposition at times whilst they dont rate Ronaldo as much because he took a different approach.
Messi is 3 years younger than Ronaldo and to many of us Ronaldo looks like the younger player because of his mental ability to not just be the goat but to me the longest one in the history of football. Some people value a dribbling skill so much whilst some value things like a players mental ability, the ability to conquer different leagues, the ability to be a complete forward from heading to finishing, the ability to win CLs with different players and managers, the ability to be the biggest goalscorer in european football. ( ronaldo had his skills as a youngster but toned it down to be the most clinical player in different leagues because messi would have to do the same if he played in different leagues to the spanish league which is a ball on the floor environment).
Then there is the fact that Messi has done crap all since the core of Xavi and Iniesta fully retired. Barcelona look less scary without those two and so does Messi. People will say it is his age - seems like an excuse to me. Consider what Spain achieved with Xavi and Iniesta - they were playing tiki taka football without messi and conquering world football. Messi wasnt important to Spain as Xavi and Iniesta was important to messi when playing for argentina.
Again - the people who disagree with me look at a wonder goal that Messi scored (against betis or vs Boateng) and decide thats what makes him better than Ronaldo - but there is many more reasons why Ronaldo outshines messi than just what obviously meets the eye.
If messi is able to move from Barcelona and dominate the PL/Cl with a club like City then id be happy to say that i was wrong. However, playing with xavi and Iniesta and performing in a single match against a big foreign club is totally different to not playing with Xavi and Iniesta at all ( instead playing with Carrick, hargreaves, Rooneu and Scholes, casemiro, kroos, isco, modric, Benzema), dominating a different environment and winning everything that could be won.
Its fair that people wont change their mind because not everyone values football in the same way and its ultimately just a point of view.
What?! So Messi moving to a team that dominates the PL with some of the best players in the world, that will make you respect him? Going from the richest club of one country to the next is meaningless. Messi has won a ballon d’or and was the best player in 2019 CL on top of multiple league trophies (yes they mean something, la liga had the best league coefficient for 2010-2020). What has Ronaldo done since leaving modric and kroos?! Gets knocked out by the Lyons of the world and Juventus are on pace for their lowest trophy count in a decade on top of potentially not winning the league for the first time in 9 years.
I think Ronaldo has been great for Juve, but it’s insanely moronic to say Messi hasn’t done anything since iniesta left. Like beyond stupid. When ronaldo doesn’t have bale, Ramos or Benzema bailing him out in the finals when he has had some very mediocre performances he gets bounced in the quarter finals. Because surprise surprise no one can do it by themselves. Not in this sport. Ronaldo is now experiencing what Messi has had to deal with which is the lack of teammates stepping up. Even in the second Liverpool leg Messi created every single shot and chance.
Juve signed Ronaldo for one main thing - The CL. Messi has been winning league titles as well as Ronaldo but serie a has been a Juventus run league for years. No Real Madrid to deal with or Atletico. Serie a is a league that has had multiple 35+ year olds top the league in scoring.
and again, Ronaldo has been fantastic for Juventus. But to say something as moronic as Messi hasn’t done crap since xavi and Iniesta (despite winning plenty of trophies) shows how little you watch him. Ronaldo depends on the service of others to get him going, Messi is the service. He always carries a far bigger burden to get his team going whereas Ronaldo is a poacher at this stage of his career. Nothing wrong with that but he has plenty of matches where he only gets 5 touches if that. Even in the last match between Barca and Juventus Messi was definitely the better player despite Ronaldo scoring penalties. I’ll take the win over the better performance but Messi’s playmaking on top of his scoring is always the biggest difference. I couldn’t care less for the wonder goals in choosing him over Ronaldo. Very very rarely in football history do you have the best scorer in the world also be the best player maker. Messi has been that countless times.
It's been two years since both Xavi and Iniesta left and in those two years Messi has been top goalscorer and top assister in La Liga twice in a row, been top goalscorer in the CL and won the Ballon D'or. Do you realise how stupid you sound when you say Messi has done crap all since Xavi and Iniesta left now?
In the same two years, Ronaldo has gone to a weaker league, to a team that has won the league 7 times in a row before he arrived, and has been outscored twice by a 36 year old Quagliarela and a 32 year old Immobile. This season Lukaku has a similar scoring record and a 39 year old Zlatan has a goal every 63 minutes in that league.
If Messi had similar records upon moving to Juventus, it would be evidence that he could only dominate for Barca. For Ronaldo, his fans have deluded themselves that just by being at Juventus, irrespective of his performances compared to his peers, he has proven something, simply because it's one thing that Messi hasn't done. It's very desperate and odd.
maybe when Ronaldo goes to Bayern or psg next we can truly call him the goat
agreed with everything you said
Xavi left in 2015 so 5 and a half years ago and Iniesta was 34 when he left in 2018 and was not at the same level as he was a few years earlier. Just to add to your quality post.
Funny how you mention only Juventus and not the English league, Portugal national team, Real Madrid and Juventus as a whole.
The way people talk about Messi youd expect him to do better in the last 2 years with Griezmann, suarez, De Jong, Busquets, Ter stegen, Pique Lenglet, Dembele, Coutinho, Alba.
Compare that to what Ronaldo plays with de ligt cuadrado, rabiot, Mckennie, Chiesa, Morata, Arthur, Ramsey, Dybala, Sczensny.
The Barcelona team is better than what Ronaldo plays with at Juventus.
Messi has not won anything like he used to post Iniesta. I dont think he is a crap player not being able to be a top scorer of a league he has only ever played it - yet he has only added to the doubt I had that he could win things as the main and only aspect of his team. We saw it fail at Argentina and we are seeing it fail at Barcelona post the tiki taka legends retirement.
The way people talk about Messi it's like people think he could play for any team in any league and turn out to be a WINNER; to me that's more Cristiano Ronaldo because well - he has done it.
I was comparing them over the last two years, because you said Messi has done 'crap all' since Iniesta and Xavi left Barca despite him being voted the best player in the world without them. Despite him being the top goalscorer and assister in La Liga twice in a row. Despite him averaging a goal or assist every 76 minutes in the CL since they left. Last season he was the only player in La Liga history to score over 20 goals and 20 assists in a season. That's something that Cristiano never did, despite him spending the majority of his prime there. Neither did Ronaldinho, Maradona, Rivaldo, Zidane, Romario, L. Ronaldo, Laudrup, Raul - nobody ever. These are accomplishments that the best ever players have failed to achieve in their peak years, yet you're here saying that it's 'crap all' even though Messi is 33 years old. It's especially hilarious as you're lionising Ronaldo, who has been outscored by a 36 year old Quagliarela and a 32 year old Immobile in this timeframe.
Even if you think Ronaldo is better, you must understand that you said something very very stupid, and at the age of 57, I'd hope that you'd have the maturity to accept your mistake rather than doubling down.
60/40.
this
When did they start counting assists in la liga? I can read on wiki it says 1990, but I looked up M. Laudrup assists, who was basically the king of assists and it says he has 6 assists in La Liga in 228 matches. Simply can't be true from the footage I have seen and the testaments from his team mates. Not to dispute Messi breaking the offical assist record, but I reckon M. Laudrup would have pretty fairly high on assists pr. season while playing in La liga.
Either way, he never scored 20 league goals in a season as well. The record is over 20 goals and 20 assists in a single season.
So...
After seeing nearly every game of both Juve and Barcelona for the last 2 years... I don't think I have ever wanted so badly, like today, for both to combine forces.
I feel both aren't in their prime, it's also ridiculous at this point in their careers to ask them to even, or better, their past performances, yet I see them as 2 world class players still, on par with a select other 4 or 5 players, how many you want to name... I think both have been the standout players of their respective teams the past couple seasons and I feel a bit as if they are both being let down a little by their club's direction.
They are both looking for CL wins, and while it's never happening, if there was ever a time to make it happen, this would be it right now.
After seeing nearly every game of both Juve and Barcelona for the last 2 years... I don't think I have ever wanted so badly, like today, for both to combine forces.
I feel both aren't in their prime, it's also ridiculous at this point in their careers to ask them to even, or better, their past performances, yet I see them as 2 world class players still, on par with a select other 4 or 5 players, how many you want to name... I think both have been the standout players of their respective teams the past couple seasons and I feel a bit as if they are both being let down a little by their club's direction.
They are both looking for CL wins, and while it's never happening, if there was ever a time to make it happen, this would be it right now.
Its over guys. To the Mbappe v Haaland thread.
Not debating that Serie A is a weak league, but let's not pretend La Liga are the quality there were a few years ago, Atletico who are running away with it didn't look too clever against the 5th-6th Premier League side.
Right, and the team who are running away with the Serie A trophy came bottom in their CL group. Juventus just got knocked out by a 10 man Porto, you really didn't think this through did you?
Serie A is obviously not as strong as La Liga, which is exactly what I said, and Ronaldo still has been beaten to the top scorer award by a 36 year old Quagliarela and an average Immobile since he's been there.In that time Messi has been top goalscorer and top assister twice in a row, in a stronger league.
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When one of these guys retire will some of you suddenly cease to exist?
Is this perhaps the best sporting rivalry ever? Due to the long period of time it's been running and the exceptionally high standard each set during that time year after year?
We've certainly been privileged to watch it in it's entirety. The best rivalries should always be strongly debated like this one. I just can't think of another sporting rivalry that has this longevity along with the crazy high standard consistently from each of them.
Many of the GOATS from the past were standing alone with no real equal at the time of their peaks, these two have been in direct competition with each other throughout their peaks in the game which in turn has extended those peaks imo.
We've certainly been privileged to watch it in it's entirety. The best rivalries should always be strongly debated like this one. I just can't think of another sporting rivalry that has this longevity along with the crazy high standard consistently from each of them.
Many of the GOATS from the past were standing alone with no real equal at the time of their peaks, these two have been in direct competition with each other throughout their peaks in the game which in turn has extended those peaks imo.
Atletico aren't running away with it.
Would love to see a charity friendly match with the pair and some of their teammates over the years come together. In the last 20 minutes you can then stick them on the same team just so we get to see it.
2nd to Ronnie O'Sullivan vs the Snooker Federation.
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