For years now Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have managed to polarize the footballing world between themselves as their support encompasses fans, neutrals and a range of pundits who spend hours arguing amongst themselves as to which of the two are better.
The truth remains, however, that they also look at the duo as the best ever in history for a multitude of reasons.
Yes, there are the great rivalries of Pele and Maradona; Zidane and Ronaldinho or even Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira to talk about.
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Here are five reasons why these two are just a step above the rest.
#1 They Make History Day in Day Out
There was a time when this could be said about them in a most literal sense. Ever since Cristiano set foot in La Liga the two have been at each others’ throats individually on the field. The two have completely smashed every single record that one can possibly think of that have been set across a century. Only with these two at it, those records have tumbled at a rate of almost a couple every month.
The record breaking process has slowed down a little but that has more to do with them having broken most of these tallies and the fact that both are still in the peaks of their careers with both footballers having the best part of five years worth of football still in them is just scary.
However, this is part of what makes them so unique. That there is a list of records that they are yet to break which is shorter than the list they have already. It is proof of a cut-throat rivalry between players who have a right to be called the two best players of all times. After all, you don’t see players score 50 goals and above in four consecutive seasons for the club that regularly.
#2 They carry two of the biggest teams on the planet
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are superb players. What really makes them the unquestionable best of the lot, is the fact that the two players carry two of the biggest teams on the planet. It is somewhat imaginable that teams as rich in player resources as Barcelona and Real Madrid should struggle in the absence of any one player.
However, it has been the case where the difference between them and a team in the European elite or even La Liga high ranked clubs has been the absence of either player from their respective starting line-up or their loss of form for a temporary time.
Their absolute ability with a football transcends their respective teams and galvanizes them with an aura of invincibility which eventually fades if either has to choose to have an off day. Indeed, teams facing them often surrender to the ability of these players but gain a tail when either is not on the team sheet of their clubs.
So we have two of the best players on the planet carrying their respective clubs. That is no mean task considering the two clubs have won 15 European Cups between themselves.
#3 They do their talking on the pitch and not off it
For many of the greater rivalries on the planet, the reports in the media were as frequent as their retorts on the pitch. For some, the match-up goes on even with their careers having ended as players. Just look at Pele and Maradona, who are still at each others’ throats when given an opportunity to talk about each other.
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, however, do not indulge in a war of words at all. They seem to be quite happy to keep their angst to themselves and only let it all out on the pitch. Week in week out, you see one score a brace only for the other to outdo them with a hat-trick later on in the same game week. You see one break a record only for the other to outdo them in a few weeks’ time.
It’s almost crazy how the two can just seem to outdo each other in such a short span of time. In fact, if you place their scoring records and record-breaking exploits in a timeline, you could argue they’re practically conversing and arguing through the tumbling records. Back and forth, records break and the duo seem assassin like on the pitch while rather quiet smiling figures off it.
#4 They Respect Each Other
It’s a media thing to really blow things out of proportion. It gets easier to sell stuff if two players, arguably the greatest ever, are at loggerheads. The worse the blood between the two, the more intense are their polarized fans and the greater the hype around the duo.
It stands true for Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo’s fans that the two sets are constantly at each others’ throats as to the superiority of either player. However, the two players themselves have never really been at loggerheads with each other off the pitch.
The duo has spent countless interviews reiterating the fact that there’s respect between the two and the rivalry extends to only matters on the field. This was further pushed through as recently a video went viral which saw Cristiano and Messi holding their sons in front of each other with Cristiano telling his son to greet his ‘rival’s’ son.
Such niceties are natural and normal when the duo is not wearing their respective jerseys. Once on the field, they’re looking to outdo the other week in week out and boy is that a treat for the neutrals!
#5 They Dominate the Ballon D’or
This is one of the more damning reasons as to why these two players are a little further up the ladder than any of their predecessors and contemporaries in terms of their rivalry.
From 2008 to 2015, only either one of the two has managed to snap up the biggest individual award in the game year in year out. Lionel Messi has, of course, dominated the prize more than Cristiano has but Cristiano has won the big one a few times as well now.
No two players, rivals or not have managed to dominate and keep a duopoly over this individual honor as strongly as these two have and this is the very essence of the argument that these two are, the greatest players to have ever graced the game. This is also the very basis of the argument that these two are indeed the greatest duo to have graced the game at the same time. To think that they are rivals, win-win for the neutrals if there ever was one.
