I’m going to take my time with this one. If you’re busy, bookmark it and come back later.
Do you know the biggest problem with Cristiano Ronaldo? It isn’t that he never won the World Cup. It’s that he spent years telling everyone what separates legends, only to change the standards once he couldn’t reach them himself.
After winning Euro 2016, Ronaldo made it clear that winning a major international trophy was what completed a player’s legacy. At the time, Messi had just lost another international final and was going through the toughest period of his career. Those comments only added to the narrative that Messi could never be the greatest because he hadn’t won with Argentina. For years, that became the standard. Messi was called a bottler, while Ronaldo was praised as the player who had proved himself internationally.
Nobody wanted to hear about context. Nobody cared that Messi had dragged Argentina to a World Cup final in 2014 with a squad many considered weaker than the Portugal teams Ronaldo has had over the last decade. The only thing that mattered was that Ronaldo had won a major trophy with his country, and Messi hadn’t.
Then Messi won the Copa América. Suddenly, the goalposts moved. We were told one Euro was worth more than multiple Copa América titles because South America supposedly wasn’t competitive enough. That became the new excuse.
Then Messi won the World Cup. The excuses changed again. It was “fixed.” It was “scripted.” Then came, “A career can’t be defined by seven games.” Funny how nobody was saying that before the tournament, when many believed it would finally be Ronaldo’s chance to win it.
Now Portugal have been eliminated from the World Cup, and Ronaldo posts about Euro 2016 again. That’s what I find ironic. When international trophies favored Ronaldo, they were the ultimate measure of greatness. When Messi caught up, people started ranking competitions differently. When Messi surpassed him by winning the biggest trophy in football, suddenly the World Cup wasn’t supposed to define a career anymore.
That’s the contradiction.
The difference between Messi and Ronaldo was never just about goals, assists, or trophies. It’s about consistency. Messi never needed to diminish Ronaldo’s achievements to elevate his own, nor did he ask football to change its standards because they no longer favored him. He simply kept playing until he won everything there was to win.
League titles. Champions Leagues. Ballons d’Or. Golden Boots. Copa América. Finalissima. World Cup. Every major trophy that was ever used against him eventually became part of his legacy.
Cristiano Ronaldo will always be one of the greatest footballers to ever play the game. But this is exactly why I believe Messi is the greatest. He didn’t ask football to rewrite the standards.
He met every single one of them.
Coco Gauff on the missed drop shot she hit on match point against Muchova, ‘People who don’t watch tennis are gonna be like, Why did you do that? But also if I make it, everyone’s gonna say how clutch of a shot that was’
Coco: “It was a lot of positives. Obviously got super close. Definitely gonna think about the last point, or I don’t know, second or third last point… whatever, for a while. But overall it was a positive tournament for me. A match to for sure remember. It’s tough to digest. But I don’t know, I’m happy.”
“What are you thinking about that point?”
Coco: “I mean, there’s one thing to be like ‘Oh why play a drop shot…’ but then I think about how many points I won off the drop shot. So it’s like, yes, people who don’t watch tennis are gonna be like ‘why did you do that?’ But at the end of the day… that’s the choice I made. Was it the right one in that moment? Maybe not. But also if I make it, everyone’s gonna say how clutch of a shot that was. That’s just tennis. You lose some shots off margins. The return came back in a tricky place for me. I didn’t expect it to, the bounce kind of caught me off guard. So I just panicked a little bit. But it takes moments like this to learn from and have a more clear and concise plan of what I wanna do. At the end of the day I left it all out there. I don’t have any regrets. Obviously points I wanna make better decisions on. But that’s how you learn and become a better player.”
(via Wimbledon Press)
🚨🏴 KIERAN TIERNEY HAS WON IT IN THE 93RD MINUTE FOR SCOTLAND !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THEY ARE QUALIFIED FOR THE WORLD CUP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gael Monfils’ reaction after beating Taylor Fritz to reach Australian Open R16.
He immediately starts dancing.
Take a look at the joy on this guy’s face.
38 years old… one of a kind athlete and human being.
Inject this into my veins. 🥹
𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗨𝗥𝗘 𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗨𝗥𝗘 ? 💙🤔
QUADRUPLÉ EN UNE MI-TEMPS POUR COLE PALMER ! 😱
Du jamais vu en Premier League.
Un coup franc exceptionnel.
6 matches, 6 buts, 4 passes décisives cette saison. 🤯
🎥 @CanalplusFoot
🇫🇷 LE IPPON DE TEDDY RINER POUR LA VICTOIRE DE LA FRANCE !! BRAVO À NOS CHAMPIONS OLYMPIQUES. 👏 Teddy Riner, Clarisse Agbégnénou, Romane Dicko, Joan-Benjamin Gaba, Sarah-Léonie Cysique et Maxime-Gaël Ngayap-Hambou. (France 2). #Paris2024