If you think Ronaldo is better than Messi, it’s time to watch another sport

Paul Macdonald

• Updated: 23 May 2023 08:55 CDT
• 5 min read

It’s time to put this argument to bed.

Lionel Messi IS the greatest player of all time. There’s no ifs, no doubts, no considerations. In all elements of the game, he’s surpassed everyone else in history.

But yet there’s still, bafflingly, a conversation about it, and almost all of it centres around Cristiano Ronaldo.

READ MORE: Cristiano Ronaldo's Piers Morgan interview - LIVE!

Former England international Peter Crouch said recently about the debate that “if you don’t pick Messi, you don’t really know football”, and there are many, many, many football watchers - not fans - who don’t know ball.

Granted, the feats of Messi and Ronaldo in the 21st century have left everyone else for dust. The relative exploits of Pele and Diego Maradona, the previous battle of the perceived best of all time, are of their era and littered with holes to pick; in Pele’s case, dubious goals totals and lack of impact in Europe. Maradona, spells of utter inconsistency and disaster around the moments of genuine, bonafide genius.

Whereas Messi and Ronaldo going head-to-head since 2007 has been the central individual battle of the modern game. You’re either in one camp or the other, in that either you’re right, or you’re wrong.

From Man City bid to Messi: Ronaldo-Piers Morgan interview IN FULL

Make no mistake, Ronaldo is a generational player, comfortably the second-best player of all time. He has developed his game from being a prodigious but flawed winger into an ultimate scorer and creator. Then moving to Real Madrid, evolving into a goal machine with endless dedication and commitment to… well, himself, mainly, but within that an endless thirst for breaking scoring records.

He has continued that even into as recently as last season at Manchester United, and clearly scoring is an invaluable asset. No-one has done it better, and at a higher level, for longer.

Messi does what Ronaldo can't

But in essence, that’s all he can do. Messi does that too, and does all the things that Ronaldo can’t. Our colleagues at FootballCritic discussed at great length what it is that Messi does that sets him apart, and purely from in front of goal, it’s the variation in the finishing, the technique and the style in which he does it.

And from a finishing perspective, there are certain types of goals that absolutely no-one does better than him; from the Panenka penalty, to the art of the one-two-goal, to his free-kick technique, he owns them all.

So in terms of the volume of goals that he scored, Messi directly competes with and often succeeds Ronaldo in the art of scoring itself.

And that’s before we get to the fact that Messi remains one of the greatest playmakers in the history of football, creating ingenious chances at least once a match for grateful team-mates. He sees runs, angles, positional movement that others simply cannot.

He is two, maybe three, unbelievable players rolled into one inconceivable whole. It is impossible that one player can be this good and, crucially, these are all things Ronaldo does not, cannot, and arguably will not do.

And all it will take to finally end the debate is for Messi to win this World Cup. To those of us that know, the debate shouldn’t exist anyway. But the remaining ammunition in Ronaldo’s arsenal is his Euro 2016 victory. Yes, Messi has the Copa America but it’s not what Argentina seeks. They need the World Cup.

Messi's battle with Maradona

And in that respect Messi has his own individual battle to fight, with Maradona. A man so beloved in his nation that to remove him as a social and sporting icon will just never happen. But Messi at least has this chance to move into the conversation of the greatest in his homeland by bringing home the gold.

For the rest of the discussion, winning this tournament would be the cherry on top of an unrivalled career. For years he has had incredible attacking options to slot around him, from Carlos Tevez, to Sergio Aguero, to Gonzalo Higuain. In other areas there were leaders like Javier Mascherano.

He doesn’t have that now - in fact this is probably the least talented attacking options he’s ever had available. And so to do it with this team, at this moment, feels like the culmination of everything he’s been trying to achieve. He’s 35 now, so this is definitely the last chance.

But he’s playing as well as ever and seems to have made peace with his position in Argentine history. He is no match for Maradona but it’s impossible to be because of the nature of the political situation in which he achieved his greatest moments.

Now he can just go out and play. And the thing that is riding on it is not just World Cup glory, but the end to the argument. Lionel Messi is better than Cristiano Ronaldo and is the best player ever, and this tournament represents the chance for everyone to believe it, together. It will be a joyous moment were it to happen.