Messi has made a career of beating up on minnows.
Ronaldo has made a career of dominating the biggest stage. Ronaldo holds the all-time record for CL goals and CL assists.
Even more important in CL knockout matches:
Ronaldo - 67 goals - 15 assists
Messi - 49 goals - 12 assists
It’s even worse for Messi if you look at QFs onward where you are guaranteed to be playing tough teams, unlike Rof16 where you can get lucky and face minnows.
In CL quarters, semis, finals:
Ronaldo - 42 goals - 6 assists
Messi - 20 goals - 6 assists
That last one is kind of embarrassing for baby goat Messi. Makes him look like a shrinking violet compared to Ronaldo in the big matches.
Ronaldo has made a career of dominating the biggest stage. Ronaldo holds the all-time record for CL goals and CL assists.
Even more important in CL knockout matches:
Ronaldo - 67 goals - 15 assists
Messi - 49 goals - 12 assists
It’s even worse for Messi if you look at QFs onward where you are guaranteed to be playing tough teams, unlike Rof16 where you can get lucky and face minnows.
In CL quarters, semis, finals:
Ronaldo - 42 goals - 6 assists
Messi - 20 goals - 6 assists
That last one is kind of embarrassing for baby goat Messi. Makes him look like a shrinking violet compared to Ronaldo in the big matches.
There are plenty of footballers who scored more goals than Maradona. You can name Gerd Muller, Van Basten, Suarez, Lewandowski, Ibrahimovic... but at the end of the day Maradona is above them all, because he was just better at football.
In football, the eye test trumps everything else, because football is something you watch and not something you study on an excel spreadsheet.
In my boredom and procrastination from work, I binge-watched some Messi videos during his physical prime (2009 to 2015). I almost feel ashamed for having forgotten just how ridiculously good Messi was at his peak. The speed, precision, and micro-control of his dribbling is alien-like.
The whole Messi vs Ronaldo debate is a funny thing. You look at stats on Wikipedia and you think Ronaldo has a strong case. Then you go on YouTube and you watch them play, and then suddenly Messi is so obviously better.
Messi is just more breath-taking to watch than Ronaldo, and for the football fans who are purists, that counts for a lot. @Afghan_juventus probably agrees with me on this.
I also find it amusing that @Zacheryah and @Bianconero81, two football purists who love Zidane, can then turn around and rank Ronaldo above Messi. That makes absolutely no logical sense and defeats the purpose of their own criteria.
