The main question football fans and pundits were debating last season after the Champions League Round of 16 matches is this \u2013 has the Erling Haaland vs Kylian Mbappe debate now surpassed Cristiano Ronaldo vs Lionel Messi in terms of relevancy?<\/p>\n
Mbappe scored a sensational hat-trick against Messi\u2019s Barcelona in the first leg back in February to leave Paris Saint-Germain with one foot in the Champions League quarter-finals. The following night, Haaland netted a brace to inspire Borussia Dortmund to a 3-2 victory over Sevilla.<\/p>\n
Ronaldo\u2019s Juventus, meanwhile, suffered a 2-1 defeat away at Porto and both Juve and Bar\u00e7a were eliminated from the competition after the second legs.<\/p>\n
Haaland was the top scorer in last season\u2019s Champions League with 10 goals, followed by Mbappe (8).<\/p>\n
For many, this truly felt like the beginning of a new era.<\/p>\n
BT Sport did an entire program based on how Haaland and Mbappe are the new future of football with the new superstar duo poised to dominate the world \u2013 and this sparked an immediate reaction from Ronaldo, according to T he Independent.<\/p>\n
The report claims the \u2018riled\u2019 Ronaldo sent a WhatsApp message to BT Sport pundit Rio Ferdinand before he was even off the air with the message blunt and crystal clear \u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s not over\u201d.<\/p>\n
Even if you are not a fan of the man\u2019s, you\u2019ve at least got to admire Ronaldo\u2019s relentless desire to be the best and for people to recognize him as the greatest, even as he approaches his late-30s.<\/p>\n
Messi, on the other hand, \u2018wasn\u2019t riled by such superficialities\u2019. He was far more angry by the way Barcelona crumbled against PSG.<\/p>\n
\u2018Ronaldo joined Man Utd because Messi signed for PSG\u2019, the rumors had also been flying around recently.<\/p>\n
The report also claims that one figure who has worked with Ronaldo says the Portuguese forward\u2019s decision to leave Juventus was \u201c100 per cent\u201d influenced by Messi joining PSG.<\/p>\n
The Independent\u2019s Miguel Delaney writes: \u201cThe Portuguese was already greatly regretting his transfer to Serie A, and felt the Italian club were a long way from challenging for the Champions League.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis great rival putting himself in prime position to win it again, as well as another Ballon d\u2019Or, clarified Ronaldo\u2019s thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Again, one is forced to respect Ronaldo\u2019s elite (egoistic?) mentality.<\/p>\n
Fearing that Messi\u2019s move to PSG would enhance his great rival\u2019s chances of winning silverware \u2013 including the coveted Ballon d\u2019Or award for a record-breaking seventh time \u2013 Ronaldo knew only too well he had to escape the clutches of Turin.<\/p>\n
Despite interest from Man City, he completed a dream return to Old Trafford and now has his sights set on transforming the Red Devils into champions of England and Europe as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n
Ambition driven by ego will either rocket you to the stars or send you on a destruction path.<\/p>\n
Credit: Football Tribe Malaysia<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The main question football fans and pundits were debating last season after the Champions League Round of 16 matches is this \u2013 has the Erling Haaland vs Kylian Mbappe debate now surpassed Cristiano Ronaldo vs Lionel Messi in terms of relevancy? Mbappe scored a sensational hat-trick against Messi\u2019s Barcelona in the first leg back in February to leave Paris Saint-Germain with one foot in the Champions League quarter-finals. The following night, Haaland netted a brace to inspire Borussia Dortmund to a 3-2 victory over Sevilla. Ronaldo\u2019s Juventus, meanwhile, suffered a 2-1 defeat away at Porto and both Juve and Bar\u00e7a were eliminated from the competition after the second legs. Haaland … Continue reading “Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s riled WhatsApp message after watching Haaland vs Mbappe debate”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":26211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1639,1640],"tags":[888,93,95],"class_list":["post-26241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-european-leagues","tag-cristiano-ronaldo","tag-manchester-united","tag-slider"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26242,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26241\/revisions\/26242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}