As a Messi fan who also watched Ronaldo right off the bat from his Man Utd days when he was signed from sporting, I say it for a fact that this was the most enjoyable version of Ronaldo. He played for the game. Flair, dribbles, pace, goals – all round entertainment, and not necessarily chasing accolades or competition. Simply enjoying the game.
Read on 👇🏼
Then English media set in and started pushing narratives and comparisons to Messi – who was equally super sensational at the time.
From 08/09 - 2011/2012 Messi started racking up the goals really quick (with 91 goals and 23 assists in 2012). He became a menace with back to back Balon’dors.
And then came more media narratives, the pressure started racking up and getting to Ronaldo bit by bit. Ronaldo started changing his game, suppressed the flair aspect of his game and became more direct, mainly focusing on only goals. He simply wanted to just score goals.
Now before you say the pressure didn’t get to Ronaldo, it explains his crash-out at some point, especially after Messi won 4 Balon’dors back to back. With His claims about how the golden boot is more relevant than Balon’dor simply because he had the lead at some point with 4 (Messi eventually won 6).
May I add His public jabs and outbursts about how Sepp blatter doesn’t like him (as if it’s Sepp who determines the Balon’dor votes). He complained so much that the pressure got to Balon’dor organizers who for the first time in history had to extend balon d’or voting window by an additional 2 weeks after it had closed, just to take advantage of recency bias of the Portugal vs Sweden match where he scored a hatrick, despite not winning any single title in that season (not even a super cup).
Thing is, those of us who watched him then and followed the story know that the Media (English media especially) started and stirred up the rivalry which then intensified in Spain, with him joining Madrid. And ooh it was a good strategy for the media, it made the media outlets so much money..
Even in terms of sponsorships; personal brand sponsors Messi (Adidas), Ronaldo (Nike). At club level, Barca (Nike), Madrid (Adidas). The Messi vs Ronaldo was, and still is a money maker till today.
Many content creators on X, Facebook, YouTube have made a fortune from contents and banter choosing a side. The algorithm simply Favour’s the narrative.
I guess focusing on only goals favored him in terms of stats. However, the Man Utd version of Ronaldo was a more complete profile in my opinion — He had it all. The flair, playmaking, dribbles, goals etc. till he changed his game to being more direct (goals only) to keep up. Thats why asides ‘goals stats’ Ronaldo fans aren’t really able to come up with anything else about other aspects of the game until they go back to his Man Utd clips.
On the other hand, Messi didn’t really care much. Man maintained his game. If anything, he added other aspects to his game. Play making, creative passes, tempo control, dribbles, assists, free kicks etc. All while still winning trophies and maintains a better goal to game ratio. Ended up with 6 golden boots, 8 Balon’dors, More MOTM awards, most goals in European club football, most playmaker awards and more free kick goals than Ronaldo who started before him.
Thats the difference. 🙂
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