It’s been well over a decade that the debate over who’s better, Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, has been continually raging. Sir Alex Ferguson – although clearly stating then in 2015 that he believed that Messi’s supremacy as a player is indubitable – however believed that Ronaldo, and not Messi, could score a hat-trick for any club much more easily – possibly alluding to his ability to adapt much quicker to conditions anywhere whereas Messi was always known as a one-club Barcelona man prior to his joining Paris Saint-Germain in the recent summer.
Back in 2015 when Sir Alex Ferguson weighed in on the Messi vs Ronaldo debate and made n outright assessment, at a casual glance, he seemed to favor the Portuguese. But that might not have been the case, depending from which perspective it is viewed.
Speaking to legendary former snooker player John Parrott at that point in time, Ferguson discussed the Ronaldo vs Messi debate.
“People say who is the best player in the world? And plenty of people quite rightly say Messi – you can’t dispute that opinion.
“But Ronaldo could play for Millwall, Queens Park Rangers, Doncaster Rovers… anyone, and score a hat-trick in a game. [But] I’m not sure Messi could do it. Ronaldo’s got two feet, quick, great in the air, brave … Messi’s brave of course. I think Messi is a Barcelona player, you know what I mean?”
For years, Ferguson’s sneaky jab – inevitable due to the obdurate streak of pure Manchester United ego – that Messi was a Barcelona player had always been highly questionable. Messi’s excellence and pre-eminence in the game could never ever be questioned or doubted, and, by choice, he remained at Barcelona, while Ronaldo skipped like a chirpy grasshopper from Real Madrid to Juventus, and now back to Manchester United again, happily sowing his wild football oats. However, now that Messi has made his way to Paris Saint-Germain, Ferguson’s assertion that Messi is just a Barcelona player can maybe be put to the test finally to weigh Fergie’s straddled assessment of both luminaries.
Yet why did Fergie make the clear admission that “… and plenty of people quite rightly say Messi – you can’t dispute that opinion …” when asked who was the better player but at the same time harbored the doubt that the Argentine could score a hat-trick at any club as easily as readily as Ronaldo? Could this be a case of ambivalence where the legendary manager is concerned, which would be highly unlikely as he is too elitist a manager to harbor vagaries in this manner.
Messi and Ronaldo have dominated European football for so long that it’s hard to remember a time when either one of them wasn’t considered the best player in the world. From 2008 to 2019, Messi or Ronaldo won the Ballon d’Or every season except for 2018, when Luka Modric claimed the prize. The two men are first and second in all-time Ballon d’Ors, with Messi’s six and Ronaldo’s five.
It’s not hard to understand why the two took turns being crowned the best player in Europe. In seventeen seasons with Barcelona, Messi tallied 627 goals and 252 assists in 714 matches. Ronaldo, in 20 seasons between four clubs, tallied 628 goals and 182 assists in 813 matches. Goal scoring at that level has never been matched for such an extended period of time.
Clearly, team-Ronaldo diehards are out of luck as Messi has scored nearly the same number of goals from almost one hundred fewer matches, and bests him in assists by 70.
Of course, Ronaldo has again already proven that he can – like Fergie alleged then in 2015 – and score a hat-trick no matter where he plays, already finding the back of the net four times in four appearances for United this season.
Messi, on the contrary, at least for now, seems to be a tad slow in getting off the starting blocks to his PSG career. In three appearances, he has failed to score or set up a teammate. However, it has only been 190 minutes of action and once Argentine’s high-octane performance heats up – coupled with teammates like Neymar and Mbappe – it wouldn’t be long before Messi’s goal-slamming exploits and assists are bound to hit new heights again. As a reminder, the Argentine was also slow in taking off at the beginning of his last season at Camp Nou. But when his rocket boosters came on, the rest was again history in the making.
Ronaldo’s temporary hot kick-off is no doubt making Alex Ferguson look like the the harbinger of oracles. Yet, to be absolutely truthful, one wonders if he’s still harboring grudges against Messi for what the latter did to overwhelmingly shatter United’s dreams of glory in the 2009 and 2011 Champions League Finals. Those were, after all, really damaging blows to the Scot’s reputation and left very distinct blemishes in an otherwise spotless CV.
“Ronaldo’s got two feet, quick, great in the air, brave … Messi’s brave of course…” – the legendary United manager had said, understandably, as he obviously needed to show the world that the player he had spotted and chosen to lead his ranks in those early years was no putz or pushover either.
Fergie’s reference to Ronaldo’s being able to score with both feet and is also adept in aerial battles somehow smells oddly familiar, just like Pele’s egoistic, and odious, disdain of Messi’s single, left-legged scoring abilities and lack of dominance in the air due to his height. Well, when your left foot itself can conjure up such wondrous miracles, who needs the right?
However, one has to somehow admire Ferguson’s honesty and integrity for having conceded publicly that Messi is the best player in the world, in his own words – “People say who is the best player in the world? And plenty of people quite rightly say Messi – you can’t dispute that opinion …”
Messi will eventually capture hat-tricks again soon enough – be they at PSG or elsewhere in the near future. So too will Ronaldo add to his United tally as well. After all, even the legendary United doyen of football had to admit, albeit grudgingly, that Messi is indeed brave like Ronaldo.
Let’s just appreciate both their greatness while it lasts, because they’re both one of a kind – with one actually termed ‘other-worldly’ even by many of his peers and toughest rivals.