Messi vs. Ronaldo – The Everlasting Battle Between Two Football Titans
Throughout football history, we’ve witnessed numerous rivalries between players that were considered once-in-a-generation talents. Every generation has produced at least two legendary players who have stood in each other’s way on the road to greatness.
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These dichotomies have one thing in common – they involved a rational player and an irrational one. Pele, who was supremely irrational, was always compared to Garrincha, who was extremely irrational. Then came Maradona, who was a 5-foot-5 bulldog who left it out all on the pitch every single time. The powerful Beckenbauer was often compared to the skinny virtuoso Cruyff.
While we all admire rational players, we love irrational players. Irrational players seem to need us more, and somehow they amuse us with their brilliance more than rational players do. Unsurprisingly, they also tend to create deeper connections with fans. According to every statistical metric out there, Pele was a better player than Maradona. But if we ask soccer fans to remember how these two titans performed on the field or who the GOAT is, most would pick Maradona.
That said, Messi has enjoyed more support and love than Ronaldo. But it goes even beyond that. Irrational players tend to have eccentric or difficult personalities that sometimes keep fans away. Maradona’s career was blemished by cocaine abuse that put his life in danger. He also became drastically obese and exhibited authoritative behavior. Cruyff was a die-hard perfectionist who was susceptible to unexplained meltdowns, while Garrincha was a hopeless, self-destructive womanizer who drank himself to death at 49.
And then we have Messi – an exception to the rule. A guy who is the epitome of loyalty as he still plays for his boyhood club. He also tries to stay out of the spotlight. By all accounts, he’s a good guy. On the other hand, Ronaldo thinks that the world hates him because he’s rich, handsome, and, of course, the greatest football player who has ever lived. If we take a look at the statistical comparison from Betting-Sites between the two, we can safely conclude that their rivalry is evenly matched.
In other words, Ronaldo has always been on the wrong side of the coin. Given his immense talent, his ‘difficult’ personality, and the fact that he played for the world’s most stylish team for most of his career, it should come as no surprise that many people think that he’s not in Messi’s league. We have simply grown to hate Ronaldo. By doing so, we are disproving of his arrogance and ridiculously flashy playstyle.
It’s a shame that some people think this – in a way, it’s mildly hypocritical. Why? Because Barcelona doled out millions of euros to bring superstar players like Ronaldo’s Real Madrid. And, by the way, Ronaldo is also a tremendously fun and undeniably gifted player whose fans enjoy his playstyle.
Give the man some credit – he’s won countless titles, broken some out-of-this-world records, and carried the Madrid team to the three consecutive Champions League titles, a feat never achieved before. Even if he’s not as good as Messi, he’s surely closer than most of us would admit.
