Sporting CP superstar Viktor Gyokeres once chose his favorite between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. The Swede, who moved from Coventry City to his current club in 2023 has already bagged 23 goals and four assists in 17 games across competitions this season.
The Messi vs. Ronaldo debate has dominated football discourses for around two decades now. The two players are widely considered the greatest to ever grace the game, sharing 13 Ballons d'Or between them (Lionel Messi with eight and Cristiano Ronaldo with five).
Ronaldo began his senior career in 2002 at Sporting CP and went on to play for Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus, and Al-Nassr. He is the all-time top-scoring male in the history of the game, scoring over 900 goals for club and country across competitions.
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Lionel Messi, meanwhile, is a La Masia graduate who rewrote history books during his time in Barcelona. After recording 672 goals and 303 assists across competitions for La Blaugrana, Messi joined Paris Saint-Germain in 2021. The talismanic Argentine currently plays football in the MLS outfit Inter Miami.
In 2023, Viktor Gyokeres was asked to choose between the two in a game of quick response (as per a report by Leonino). The Swedish forward was quick to pick Cristiano Ronaldo over Lionel Messi. In fact, he recently cited Cristiano Ronaldo as one of the reasons for moving to Sporting CP.
In an interview with UEFA's official media outlets after Sporting CP thrashed Manchester City 4-1 in the UEFA Champions League on November 5, Gyokeres said (via Leonino):
"Cristiano Ronaldo and Luís Figo started their careers here and achieved incredible success. You have to admire players like that, who were at Sporting, but I try not to compare myself to them. I just want to be myself and give my best every day, whether in training or in games"
Ronaldo scored five goals and provided six assists in 31 games for Sporting.
When Lionel Messi opened up about his iconic rivalry with Cristiano Ronaldo
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry truly began when the Portuguese superstar joined Real Madrid from Manchester United in 2009. From then on, El Clasicos became a global spectacle with Messi and Ronaldo forming the focal points of their respective sides.
The two have faced each other 30 times in El Clasicos with Lionel Messi winning 14. Ronaldo has won eight games with the remaining eight ending in stalemates.
Lionel Messi opened up about his iconic rivalry with Ronaldo in a 2019 interview where he was asked to select the players he thought were close to his level. The Argentine said (via Football Italia):
“There are so many good players now. Neymar, Kylian Mbappé, Luis Suarez, Eden Hazard, any of them could become the best in the world.
The interviewer was quick to point out that he hadn't included Ronaldo. Messi said:
“I didn’t include Cristiano Ronaldo in that list, because I consider him to be on the same level as me. It was fun to play against him, even if he made me suffer too. It irritated me seeing Real Madrid lift trophies."
He continued:
“I do wish he was still in Spain, but I have a great deal of respect for Juventus. They seem a very strong squad, with excellent players, and are now even stronger with Cristiano.”
Messi and Ronaldo left La Liga as the league's top two highest scorers in history. Messi left with 474 goals while Ronaldo had 311.
