Ronaldo and Messi: The competition has no end
The debate over who is the better player – Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi – is the most controversial topic in football and sports in general. Over time, the controversy has grown from “who plays better” to “who is the greatest of all time,” aka GOAT (greatest of all time).
Ronaldo and Messi – who is better? (Photo: Internet).
Everyone has their own views and preferences, but many sports experts agree that Ronaldo is a better player than Messi, and there are many undeniable reasons to prove this statement. Before getting into the details, let’s take a look at some of the career features of these two geniuses, because there are also countless factors that lead to today’s results.
Summary of Cristiano Ronaldo’s career
His full name is Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, commonly known by the nickname CR7, is a Portuguese born on May 2, 1985.
Ronaldo started playing football at Sporting Lisbon Club (Photo: Internet).
Ronaldo officially started his football career at Sporting Lisbon Club (Portugal), going through the U15, U17 and U19 teams.
His impressive performances for Sporting Lisbon – especially in the 3:1 win over illustrious Manchester United before the start of the new season – prompted Manchester United to decide to sign him in August 2003. with a conversion fee of 19 million euros.
At Manchester United, Ronaldo established himself as one of the best players in the world as he won 3 Premier League titles, 1 Champions League trophy, 1 FA Cup, 2 League Cup titles, and many trophies. another. In the MU shirt, the young man at that time impressed fans around the world with his comprehensive play, stable ball handling skills, good dribbling ability, scoring goals and assists. regularly.
Impressive performance has brought Ronaldo many individual titles, in which the culmination of glory is the 2008 Golden Ball, an award that strengthens his number one position in the football village. Since then Ronaldo has never slowed down but grown more and more, setting a world record for transfer value when he joined Real Madrid in 2009 and continues to establish himself as one of the greatest players in the world. world football history.
Ronaldo has won 5 Golden Balls so far (Image: Internet).
CR7 then moved to Juventus and has now returned to Manchester United. He is also the captain of the Portuguese national team and has won 2 international titles, the Euro and the Nations League.
Summary of Lionel Messi’s career
His full name is Lionel Andres Messi, born on June 24, 1987 in Rosario, Argentina.
Messi’s career is associated with Barcelona club (Photo: Internet).
Lionel Messi started his football career in 1994 at Newell Old boys before moving to Barcelona’s training academy in 2000, at the age of 13. His natural talent for football helped him rise to the top. youth team of the club, and after only 3 years made his debut in a friendly match against FC Porto on November 16, 2003 at the age of 16.
But Messi’s first official match was almost a year later, away derby against Espanyol club on October 16, 2004. Since then, Messi has improved more and more in a Barcelona shirt, scoring his first goal in 2005 and gradually establishing himself as one of the greatest footballers, winning 6 Ballon d’Or, 10 La Liga titles. Liga, 4 Champions League Cups, and many more trophies.
Messi recently moved to Paris Saint-Germain club and is the captain of the Argentina national team.
5 reasons why Ronaldo is better than Messi
1. Ronaldo is a more comprehensive player
Messi is a genius, his strengths are his skillful left foot, the ability to dribble like “magic” and play with the ball naturally. But in fact, Messi also has some huge weaknesses such as the ability to head or build when in a tense dispute with the opponent.
Obviously Messi is not good at headers with Ronaldo (Photo: Internet).
On the contrary, Ronaldo has almost no weaknesses: he can use both feet well, can score goals with his head and has excellent physical fitness. . His ability to jump high and head perfectly has even earned him nicknames like CR7 Airways. And if we follow the young Ronaldo from his early days at Sporting Lisbon, MU and Real Madrid, we will see that he is very good at dribbling and creating.
Another feature that proves Ronaldo’s all-round play is that he can threaten the opponent’s goal every minute of the game: statistics show that Ronaldo is the first player in football history to score a goal. at all minutes of the official 90 minutes.
In addition, Ronaldo owns 57 hat tricks in his career, an amazing number even though Messi is only 2 hat tricks less. But the special thing is that CR7 has scored 9 “perfect hat tricks”, ie 3 goals scored with both left foot, right foot and head in a match. Meanwhile, Messi has never scored such a perfect hat trick.
2. Ronaldo scores more goals
Up to now, CR7 has 798 career goals compared to Messi’s 755 goals. Ronaldo is also the top scorer in the Champions League and the top scorer for the national team: 103 to Messi’s 70.
Ronaldo can score anytime, anywhere (Photo: Internet).
3. Ronaldo often shines at important moments
A great player is someone who can overcome pressure and shine at key moments to revive the team. Ronaldo is a prime example of that, he has many times “carried the team” in major arenas, even helping the team to successfully reverse the lead in the situation. Meanwhile, Messi sometimes “lost” in important matches.
4. Ronaldo has won more at the high level
Ronaldo not only possesses the ability to play more comprehensively and score more goals, but also proves his position in the top 3 world tournaments he has been to (England, Spain and Italy), also such as winning the continent’s top tournament for club and national team. It can be said that wherever Ronaldo went, he left an indelible mark.
Ronaldo with Portugal won Euro 2016 (Image: Internet).
Messi can boast more trophies won with Barcelona, but he has not been able to replicate the form. so if leaving the club, especially with the Argentina national team as captain but experienced 4 defeats in the final including FIFA World Cup and Copa America. In 2021, the Argentina team won the Copa America, but Messi’s performance was also not very impressive.
On the contrary, Ronaldo has never lost his top form at Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus, and now returns to MU, and is also the captain of the national team that won Euro 2016 – This is Portugal’s first major international title.
5. Ronaldo is better in set pieces
Set-pieces are very important, sometimes can be the key to winning or losing a match, including penalties, direct kicks and corners.
Ronaldo is a master of set pieces. This is evidenced by the stats up to this point: CR7 has scored 141 penalties (out of 169 attempts) compared to Messi’s 101 (out of 130 attempts). Thus, Messi’s penalty kick success rate is 77.7% compared to Ronaldo’s 83.4%. Ronaldo’s steady form in front of the penalty spot has made opponents’ fans call him “Penaldo”.
Ronaldo’s penalty kick success rate is higher than Messi’s (Photo: Internet).
In terms of direct free kick, Ronaldo currently has 56 goals compared to Messi’s 58. But if you look closely, in recent years Ronaldo has been given free kicks less often than before, while Messi is almost always the first choice when the home team is awarded free kicks.
Finally, the corner kicks, although Ronaldo barely takes them, he is still a huge threat in front of goal thanks to his incredible jumping ability and powerful accurate headers. , factors that helped him score many goals when his teammates took the corner.
Above is an analysis of 5 reasons that prove Ronaldo is a better player than Messi. Do you agree with this comment? Leave a comment below in the comments section!
