After Ronaldo won EURO 2016 while Messi was still without a senior international trophy, a common argument across football media, punditry and mainstream football discourse was that international trophies were not essential to determining individual greatness. Football was said to be a team sport, and a player’s legacy should not be reduced to what he won with his national team.
At the time, Messi had lost four major international finals with Argentina and had even retired from international football after the 2016 Copa América final defeat to Chile.
A few months later, Messi returned. What followed was an unusually busy Copa América schedule. The tournament was played in 2015, 2016, 2019 and 2021, four editions in just six years. Many observers could not help but notice that a player who had repeatedly fallen short was being given more opportunities to win in a short period and rightly so. Eventually, Messi won the 2021 Copa América.
For years, the football world had been told that international trophies were not necessary to be considered the greatest of all time. When Messi lacked an international trophy, the importance of international success was routinely downplayed.
Similarly, when Messi lacked a World Cup, it was not considered essential to being the GOAT. Once he won it in Qatar, however, the World Cup was elevated from being one achievement among many to the achievement that supposedly settled the GOAT debate forever.
To many Ronaldo supporters, this is the clearest example of shifting goalposts in football history. The standards appeared to change at every stage until they aligned perfectly with Messi’s résumé. What was once irrelevant became important. What was important became essential. And once Messi achieved it, the debate was declared over.
In Qatar, Argentina received five penalties during the tournament, a World Cup record for a single team in one edition. Several refereeing decisions involving Argentina remain debated to this day, including Messi’s handball incident against the Netherlands that some believe warranted a second yellow card.
For many critics, these were not isolated incidents but part of a wider pattern they believe has followed Messi throughout his career, where controversial decisions repeatedly seem to fall in his favour. They point to numerous moments over the years where they believe punishments that would have been applied to other players were overlooked when Messi was involved. Some supporters have even argued that similar concerns resurfaced only recently, after another incident in which they believe Messi was fortunate to avoid a red card.
Whether one agrees with that view or not, it has become a significant reason why many Ronaldo supporters remain sceptical of the narrative surrounding Messi’s achievements and the way they are discussed by the football establishment and mainstream media.
For many Ronaldo supporters, the issue has never simply been about preferring one player over another. It is about what they perceive as inconsistent standards. They see achievements weighed differently depending on who accomplished them. They see one player protected from scrutiny while the other is subjected to it at every turn.
That is why many continue to side with Ronaldo. Not because to many he is the greatest to ever kick a ball or he has won every trophy or because he is beyond criticism, but because they believe the standards applied to him have often been harsher than those applied to his greatest rival.
They would rather support a player who loses with his honour intact than celebrate victories they believe are surrounded by unanswered questions.
As José Mourinho once said: “If I have to win in that way, I would be ashamed.”
For them, the issue is not simply who won. It is whether the criteria for greatness remained consistent throughout the debate. In their view, they did not.
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Why is the government shielding these giants while NSPs are borrowing money for trotro?…
Credit to Messi tbh. He has hyper optimized his game for goals because the other parts of his game are simply not the same anymore, fair play to him and massive respect.
Remove Messi from MSN and replace with any version of Madrid Ronaldo & Barca would have won more than 4 UCL through that time period.
But if you swap Messi with Ronaldo in BBC they wouldn’t have won.
The only reason you’d think Messi is better than Ronaldo is recency Bias.
Boy, ɛbi nom te yie o, I left Sec. Tech together with my guy, he didn't even have TnT, he called home, they didn't even mind him, I had to share mine with him, we alighted somewhere around Achimota Mall and walked from Achimota to Lapaz carrying my trunk full of books and toiletries while he carried my jute bag, we got off at Achimota around 6:30pm to 7:00pm but got to Lapaz around 10:00pm to 11:00pm, not a small distance. Got Mallam car, and reached home around 12:00am there about. Boy the next morning the neck pain I had, it wasn't a child's play. Chale y'abrɛ o 🤣
gotta give it to Messi and his dictatorship rule . No Ronaldo fanboys allowed in the team . No player unwilling to die for him in the team . His personal coach . His dick riders . 1 idea , 1 ambition . Ronaldo has been too loving and lenient to these ungrateful brats
5x UCL golden boots
6x league golden boots
4x European Golden boots
1x International Golden boots
5x IFFHS golden boots
If anyone is delusional, it is you.
We are witnessing football discourse being rewritten in real time because the media hates this man. Nations League was the Ballon d’or decider until the 61st min when Ronaldo scored in the final and won it. Now according to Messi PR, it isn’t even a major trophy anymore lmao
Messi is a great player but never greater than Ronaldo in any world. The only problem with Ronaldo is that he’s the best and never hides his feelings, value himself as a superstar that he is and doesn’t form those humble gimmicks. His superstar Aura annoy his enemy even more.