Lionel Messi vs Cristiano Ronaldo: Indian captain Sunil Chhetri picks his favourite; names the more worthy role model

What's the story?

Indian national football team captain Sunil Chhetri has picked his favourite player and the better role model between Barcelona captain Lionel Messi and Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo.

In case you didn't know...

Chhetri recently made it to the record books of international football by overtaking Messi to become the second-highest goalscorer among active players. The forward even earned some comparisons with Ronaldo and Messi but he has since rubbished them saying,

"That’s something (the statistics of active goalscorers) I don’t take seriously and would request whole of my country to not to as well. Enjoy the fact that I try to score as many goals as possible for my country, but those statistics shouldn’t be taken seriously."

"I myself see so many memes and stories about it (comparison with Messi and Ronaldo). They are just feel good things for 5-6 seconds. Relax, enjoy, go to work, do your job and forget about it. That’s what I follow. When I see (those memes), I feel great that I am on the same picture with Ronaldo and Messi and then forget about it, that's about it. I don’t take it too seriously."

The heart of the matter

Chhetri has now made his pick between the record Ballon d'Or-winning duo and has revealed who he believes to be more worthy of the 'role model' tag.

Speaking in a live Instagram video, the 34-year-old said (via Fox Sports Asia),

"Who is better? I think both Messi and Ronaldo are amazing but if you ask who is my favourite, it will be Messi for me. But if you need a role model, I would say Cristiano Ronaldo would be a better pick."

"Messi is more like a God gift. Some of the things he does, it is so difficult to learn. He does them so effortlessly. With Cristiano, there’s so much of hard work and if you see his graph every year, there’s so much to learn."

"His header, his finishing from both left and right – it’s just brilliant. He takes less time on the ball now but he is as good as ever and so devastating."

What's next?

Barcelona and Juventus, who just came off of their Champions League quarter-final first leg clashes against Manchester United and Ajax respectively, will face their European opponents for the return legs on April 16.