🚨🎙️ Pep Guardiola was asked:
“Who is the GOAT between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo?”
🗣️ Pep Guardiola smiled:
“Honestly, I don't like this debate anymore because people always want a five-second answer for a question that deserves five hours.”
🗣️ “The moment you say Messi, Ronaldo fans get angry. The moment you say Ronaldo, Messi fans get angry.”
🗣️ “Football is not social media. Football is not about choosing a side in ten seconds.”
🗣️ “To understand greatness, you have to understand football first.”
🗣️ “Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the greatest competitors I have ever seen in any sport.”
🗣️ “His mentality is unbelievable. His discipline is unbelievable. The way he transformed himself from a winger into the greatest goalscorer football has ever seen is something that should be studied.”
🗣️ “You don't score that many goals by accident.”
🗣️ “You don't dominate England, Spain, Italy and international football by accident.”
🗣️ “Cristiano earned every single achievement he has.”
🗣️ “But then there is Messi.”
🗣️ “And this is where the conversation changes.”
🗣️ “When I coached Messi, I realized very quickly that I wasn't looking at a normal football player.”
🗣️ “I was looking at football itself.”
🗣️ “There are players who score goals.”
🗣️ “There are players who create goals.”
🗣️ “There are players who control matches.”
🗣️ “Messi does all three at the same time.”
🗣️ “People see the goals.”
🗣️ “I see the passes nobody else sees.”
🗣️ “I see the spaces nobody else understands.”
🗣️ “I see the decisions that change games before anyone realizes what happened.”
🗣️ “That's why I always laugh when people compare football only through statistics.”
🗣️ “Football is much deeper than statistics.”
🗣️ “If football was only about goals, then maybe the debate would be different.”
🗣️ “But football is also creativity.”
🗣️ “Football is intelligence.”
🗣️ “Football is influence.”
🗣️ “Football is making everyone around you better.”
🗣️ “And for me, nobody has ever done that better than Messi.”
🗣️ “Can Ronaldo be called one of the greatest ever?”
🗣️ “Of course.”
🗣️ “Without any doubt.”
🗣️ “But if you ask me personally, if you ask me honestly, if you ask me as somebody who watched Messi every day…”
🗣️ “Then my answer is Lionel Messi.”
🗣️ “Not because Ronaldo isn't incredible.”
🗣️ “He is.”
🗣️ “Not because Ronaldo didn't change football.”
🗣️ “He did.”
🗣️ “But because Messi changed the way football is understood.”
🗣️ “That is a different level.”
🗣️ “And maybe some Ronaldo fans will criticize me for saying this.”
🗣️ “That's okay.”
🗣️ “I respect Cristiano enormously.”
🗣️ “But I cannot ignore what my eyes have seen.”
🗣️ “For many years I watched Messi do things that should not be possible on a football pitch.”
🗣️ “Things that coaches cannot teach.”
🗣️ “Things that defenders cannot stop.”
🗣️ “Things that only belong to geniuses.”
🗣️ “Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the greatest players in football history.”
🗣️ “Lionel Messi is the greatest footballer I have ever seen.”
🐐🇦🇷✨
🗣️ “Sometimes the hardest answer to give is also the simplest one.”
🗣️ Garry Neville: “The influence Arsenal players are having at this World Cup is incredible.
Just look at England’s latest performance: Noni Madueke wins the penalty that leads to Harry Kane’s opener, Declan Rice delivers the corner for another goal, and Bukayo Saka comes off the bench to set up Marcus Rashford and wrap up the victory.
When your players keep deciding matches on the biggest stage, it’s hard not to argue that Arsenal are among the very best teams in world football right now.” 🔴⚪️🏆
🚨 Jorge Valdano on Zlatan Ibrahimović saying Lionel Messi ended the GOAT debate by winning the 2022 World Cup:
🗣 “I understand why Zlatan says the debate ended in Qatar, because the World Cup is football's greatest stage. But for me, Messi's place in history was established long before he lifted that trophy.
The World Cup did not create his greatness; it completed a story that was already extraordinary. By 2012, after winning four consecutive Ballon d'Or awards, Messi had already achieved a level of excellence that very few athletes in any sport have ever reached. Week after week, season after season, he redefined what we believed a footballer could do.
People often speak as though the World Cup made Messi the greatest. I see it differently. It simply removed the last argument used by those who doubted him. Greatness is not built in one month; it is built over an entire career.
We should also remember that before 2022, Messi had already carried Argentina to the 2014 World Cup final and was named the tournament's best player. Ironically, he was criticised for finishing second, while others who failed to reach that stage were judged far less harshly. Such has always been the burden of being Lionel Messi—his standards were higher than everyone else's.
Recognising Messi as the greatest is not a criticism of Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo's career is one of the most remarkable in football history. His ambition, consistency, and longevity deserve universal admiration. But football occasionally produces a player whose influence cannot be measured only by statistics or trophies.
There are great footballers, and then there are artists who change the language of the game. Messi belongs to that rare group. He scores, creates, imagines, and solves problems that others cannot even see.
The World Cup gave his career the perfect ending, but it did not write the story. That story had already been written through years of sustained brilliance. Qatar simply allowed the entire world to read the final chapter without any remaining doubts.”
🚨🗣️ 𝗡𝗘𝗪: Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa responds to Cristiano Ronaldo’s claim that the World Cup is just a ‘seven-game tournament’ ahead of Mexico’s clash with South Africa:
“Seven-game tournament? That’s like calling Mount Everest a short walk because it only takes one climb.
Cristiano can say whatever he wants, but the World Cup is the one stage where football stops being a sport and becomes history. Billions watch. Nations stop. Generations remember.
And let’s be honest, these comments didn’t appear from nowhere. Funny how the tournament became ‘just seven games’ after Messi lifted the trophy. Before that, every great player dreamed of touching it. After Messi won it, suddenly it’s being treated like a weekend cup competition.
The World Cup is football’s crown jewel. You don’t shrink the crown because someone else wears it.
Some trophies decorate a career; the World Cup defines eras. That’s why people still talk about Maradona, Pelé, Zidane, and now Messi through their World Cup moments.
If the World Cup is only seven games, then why do legends spend twenty years chasing those seven games?
To me, this sounds less like analysis and more like a man arguing with his own shadow. The trophy he couldn’t catch is now being measured with a smaller ruler.
Ronaldo is one of the greatest players ever. But when you call the World Cup a seven-game tournament, it feels like sour grapes served in a golden cup.”
🗣️ Roy Keane:
“Look at how many Arsenal players have were selected for the World Cup. That tells you everything about the quality of this squad.
When nearly half your team is representing their countries on the biggest stage, you’re doing something right. Arsenal are not a team you can underestimate anymore.
They’ve won the Premier League, reached a Champions League final, and built a squad full of top international players.
If Arsenal recruit seriously this summer, the rest of the football world might not like what comes next season.
People spend a lot of time hate-watching Arsenal. If this team keeps improving, that might become a waste of time.” 😳🔴⚪️
🗣️ Patrick Vieira:
“When I heard that West Ham United F.C. valued Mateus Fernandes at £85 million, I thought: ‘Wait a minute, a relegated team has a player worth that much?’
Then you look at what Arsenal achieved. They won one of the toughest leagues in the world and reached a Champions League final.
Anyone who says Arsenal had an easy run is completely delusional. The Premier League is the most demanding league in football. To finish first over 38 games, ahead of all those top teams, takes consistency, quality and mentality.
People don’t realise how difficult it is until they try to do it themselves.” 🔴⚪️🏆
"They were more afraid to drop out of the tournament than having the excitement and hunger to win it" 👀
Thomas Tuchel reflects on England's Euro2024 campaign 🏴
#ITVFootball | #ThreeLions | @England | @GabrielClarke05
@DailyLoud@djvlad She chose not to go on the Joe Rogan podcast despite Rogan repeatedly saying he would like to have her on. You’re choosing not to go on one of the largest, if not the largest, podcasts on YouTube, because she wanted it to be 1 hour long and in her environment.