Plaudits to Cristiano for winning a fourth Ballon d’Or. This part year the Portugal captain has been part of a European Cup winning side and domestic Spanish title-winning team with Real Madrid. His trophy/medal cabinet must be close to overflowing after a panel of journalists chose him as the winner of this major honour. Ronaldo is a player who many youngsters around the world look up to for his footballing genius.
However, even in the moment of accepting one of football’s highest gongs – and as one of the greatest ever players to have graced the beautiful game – he still can’t resist letting everyone know something.
He thinks he’s better than Lionel Messi!
This journalist had a wager on Ronaldo. In an interview with France Football, Ronaldo said that he believes that he might have won the Ballon d’Or more times than Lionel Messi had they played on the same team. But he also had some words of praise for the Barcelona man who has won the Ballon d’Or even more times than himself (5).
“It would be interesting to see us both in the same team – I think great players should play together. If we were in the same team I think I would have more than him, but he wouldn’t be far off.”
Messi finished second in the voting and Antoine Griezmann was in third place. It’s hard not to argue that if Messi and Ronaldo played in different eras that they both would have won almost every year of their playing careers. What’s for certain is that the football public are very fortunate to be able to witness two great talents on display, and we think it’s better that they do play against one another. And perhaps that rivalry between the Portugese and Argentinian wizards is what makes them both want to improve that little bit more each season.
Messi (29) is a couple of years younger than Ronaldo (he’ll be 32 on the 5th Feb 2017), so perhaps he will finish with more Ballon d’Or trophies, but sometimes one just has to admire both players on their individual merits. The ex-Sporting Lisbon and Manchester United man has already scored 10 league goals in 11 matches this season. Messi, who has spent his entire career at Barcelona since starting there in 2004/5), has 11 goals in 12 league appearances.
It doesn’t look like this rivalry is going to end very soon.
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