Ronaldo and Messi will be fun but a disaster
Robin Bairner
- 7 Mar 2022 16:41 GMT
- 3 min read
Cristiano Ronaldo is in the process of trying to broker a summer transfer from Manchester United to Paris Saint-Germain in the event that the Red Devils fail to finish in the top four of the Premier League.
Such a deal would set up the tantalising prospect of the Portuguese great teaming up with Lionel Messi in the same side.
The pair have long enjoyed a rivalry that has both entertained and divided football fans all over the globe, so the prospect of playing together for a year in the City of Lights is one that is mouth-watering.
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Certainly, from PSG’s perspective, it would be a lucrative one: there are few more marketable footballers on the planet than Messi and Ronaldo, so put them together in one team and the windfall could be remarkable.
How would Messi and Ronaldo combine?
On the field, though, there must be scepticism over how they might play together. After all, the pair have playing styles that are diametrically opposed to one another.
Messi is considered the artist and Ronaldo the machine. The former is the natural talent, the latter has cultivated every ounce of his potential by dedicating his life to the sport. The Argentine is seen as the team player, Ronaldo the individual.
But for all the differences, there are also similarities: their ability, their goals and their profound success year after year.
Both have spent a career hogging the spotlight of their respective sides. It has been notable that the Argentine has looked awkward at times this season having been pushed down a peg by Kylian Mbappe, whose probable departure will open the door for Ronaldo to join the Parc des Princes side.
How, then, will two players who have spent their careers defining themselves by being better than the other manage to dovetail into the same team?
There is also the question of just how ready these two players are to go again and make one last push for European glory. Messi is 35, Ronaldo is 37, and while both remain at the top level, is it really any coincidence that both are experiencing their toughest seasons in well over a decade? Has the decline that hits every player, finally hit this apparently time-defying pair?
Beyond the connection between Messi and Ronaldo, there is also the question of whether they can be dovetailed into a functioning team. PSG have already shown this season that simply having three superstar players, in their case Messi, Mbappe and Neymar, is no guarantee for offensive fireworks.
Perhaps all these questions and doubts might bring the best out of Ronaldo and Messi. Certainly, there will be few who see combining them as a very good idea from a footballing perspective at this late stage in their careers.
For the neutral, though, it promises to be a hell of a lot of fun to see the swansong of Messi and Ronaldo at the top level together.
