Before I begin my rant, which I am sure will be down voted to oblivion, I should state that I have watched 90% of games played by Real Madrid and Barcelona in the past 10 years. Although I am a Barcelona Fan, my father is a long time Real Madrid fan. This puts me and my father in a position to judge which player is better: Ronaldo or Messi? We both agree that there is really no comparison between the two. One is an exceptional player, the other is the best player we have ever seen. I know this topic has been debated to hell, but I really want to hear the other side. Am I a crazy person for thinking that Ronaldo does not even come close to Messi? If so, can you explain to me how?
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No you're not crazy
Do you expect reasoned responses to this question? Especially after using the words "not even close". Mate, you've pissed off a lot of people by simply using those words.
Do you actually care what people think about the Ronaldo vs Messi debate? If so, why? I would be genuinely curious to know why people care so much about this question.
"I am a Barcelona Fan, my father is a long time Real Madrid fan" - I'm a wee bit old school so I might need a little explanation here. Never met a father/son split between Madrid and Barca before.
I grew up in a Madrid Family, but when I grew up I became a barca Fan (Mainly due to the fact they always had my fav players, like Overmass, Ronaldhino, Messi etc,,)
Fucking hell; Overmass!! The 'R' isn't even that close to the 'S' on thee ol' keyboard either. Unforgivable!
I'm happy to oblige, because it annoys me when people do this.
Anyway, this topic is shit. It's a fucking team sport. If you want to worship some celebrity, go buy a fucking Nicki Minaj iTunes, or whatever the fuck kids do these days.
For pure natural talent, Messi is best.
Ronaldo has bags of it too but has worked incredibly hard to get to where he is, the man is a machine, and his past 2 Ballon d'Ors have been completely justified.
Messi may have more natural talent but form is temporary, and Ronaldo has had the power to become better in the past 2 years.
What is 'pure natural talent'? What does that even mean?
I'm pretty sure he'd be offended given how hard and long he's trained for his work to be refereed to as innate and a gift.
Of course I'm not suggesting Messi just rolls out of bed and walks into the Nou Camp and starts to dazzle. That would be foolish.
It's clear Messi is more gifted in terms of technical ability, the way he dribbles, the way the ball sticks to his feet, his vision, composure, awareness, all just natural things you can't be taught.
Ronaldo is a fantastic footballer, my favourite of all time. However I think his talents come from power, pace, determination. Things you can work on, and perfect. And those are things he has molded to football to become the best. Of course he has natural ability too, but not as much as Messi in my opinion.
They might be extremely difficult to be taught but they're not impossible to learn. He would of started when he was very young dribbling quickly, looking for passes and knowing where players are. Over time it just develops into a superhuman skill which operates on autopilot.
I suppose the reason it seem more 'natural' is that it's not something you can actively see him improving like doing squats to increase your speed and power. It's a brain skill more than a physical skill so it's picked up more through sight and sound than other senses.
So maybe you could say Ronaldo is the better athlete and Messi is the smarter player.
They have this training program which I know Dortmund use among other clubs where you go into a room which has squares with lights above them and they shoot out balls, then another flashes and you have to pass it there. Here's a video of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMy37ZNHpPY
So they're are certain training methods being developed where players can increase awareness, vision and reaction times.
Yes I know, modern football has developed in a way where most things can be learnt. We will probably see even better footballers in the next generations because of this.
Yeah Ronaldo is the better athlete, Messi is smarter. Basically what I wanted to say.
As a Madrid supported, I will admit that Messi indeed is on a different pedigree when it comes to "natural?" talent. By that I mean dribbling, and getting past his opponent , but Ronaldo is also a very powerful keen footballer. He is the complete package with heading prowess, strength, and powerful strikes. I don't think you're crazy by thinking that. Ronaldo is just so effective at Real Madrid that there is very little difference between both footballers that it leaves it up to individual preference.
Yes. I don't understand the obsession that a lot of Barcelona fans have over Messi. I saw a guy post on r/soccer that he is the undisputed best in history and he had a ton of upvotes. I know Messi is phenomenal and is probably going to go down with this generation of football fans as one of the 2 best players in history with Cristiano when they retire. But people are seriously underestimating the great football players that have played in the past. Players like Maradona, Eusebio, Pele, Di Stefano, Zidane, Ronaldo, etc were all brilliant and could compete with Cristiano and Messi. As far as I'm concerned, there is not much difference between them. For Messi to be the best, Ronaldo has to be less than his own best (what is happening this last few months) and also vice versa. Cristiano is one of the best players in history and once a player reaches that status, its difficult to be miles ahed if the other greats. Maradona right now is the GOAT for a lot of people (especially people over 30 years old or so), and take R9 for example, Maradona was only better than R9 by a margin, not huge. You can't go around as an objective football fan and say 'R9 doesn't come close to Maradona'. Basically my point is, there is not a huge difference between the greats of the game. Btw, Why is Platini never mentioned as a great player on r/soccer?
When you compare someone like Joe from the Sunday league and Ronaldo it's clear to anyone who the better player is.
But when you get to that level of peak performance it's extremely difficult to judge who's better. For one they excel in different skills. Messi is the better dribbler of the ball in tight spaces, Ronaldo can pull off more tricks to get him out of tight spaces.
IMO, Messi is the best at a number of skills but Ronaldo has mastered a bigger variety of skills to be more complete. He may not be the best in all of the individual skills(heading, agility, shooting, sprinting, etc.) but it's the fact he does all of them so well which is what makes him the best.
I'd ask you though, why in particular do you think Messi is the superior player? What standard are you comparing them at?
The real question is -
Rolling Stones or The Beatles??????
Beatles
100%
As far as I see it, they are both the best players in the world, as they produce similar ridiculuous numbers each season.
However, I see Messi as the most gifted of the two, and I see Ronaldo as the best athlete.