Argentine star Lionel Messi is clearly making a positive start to his season at PSG after having endured a challenging earlier season of learning to adapt to the cold climes of both the French weather and its football culture.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, on the other side of the coin, La Pulga\u2019s erstwhile Portuguese rival seems to be going through a bit of a rough patch at Old Trafford.<\/p>\n
As it also happens to be that particular window in the new football season when clubs, managers and players are all engaged in conspiracy theories mapping out transfer strategies, it is hence no surprise then that both luminaries have been linked with moves this period. While one has chosen to disdainfully ignore the murmurings around him, intent only on finishing this season with eyes fully focused on the Qatar World Cup and the Champions League, the other has been chasing his own tail as he continues contriving to leave the club he had abandoned the Serie A for to defend his goal-scoring legacy in Europe\u2019s top club championship honors.<\/p>\n
Hence it was easily understandable that the recent goal scored by the Argentine wizard with his overhead kick all made for a fresh episode of ebullient chatter in what has been one of elite sport\u2019s most vivid debates \u2013 Messi or Ronaldo?<\/p>\n
Interestingly, and probably about time too, the last 12 months have seen the gradual yet inevitable eroding of the enduring assumption that they are the finest pair of footballers on the planet. This year\u2019s Men\u2019s Ballon D\u2019Or, held by either Ronaldo or Messi for 12 of its last 13 editions, will probably have neither on the podium for the first time in 16 years.<\/p>\n
That said, there\u2019s little question which of the two is the more cheerful as one gears up an epoch-defining season with perhaps a last World Cup for him beckoning in the middle of it.<\/p>\n
A year after Messi departed, tearfully, from a Barcelona where he had spent all his adult career but who told them they could no longer afford him, he seems more content at PSG than at any time. In his two outings so far in 2022-23, the 4-0 Trophee des Champions<\/em> win over Nantes and the dismantling of Clermont, he has been directly involved in scoring four PSG goals.<\/p>\n In the whole of last season, Messi scored just six times in French domestic competition; he is already halfway to that total. \u201cLast year was hard, he was still getting used to things,\u201d said Christophe Galtier, the new PSG head coach. \u201cWhen Messi smiles, PSG smiles.\u201d<\/p>\n Over in Manchester, Ronaldo spent the weekend frowning. He was on the bench for the first 52 minutes of his second season since his return to Manchester United and finished on the losing side at Old Trafford\u00a0against Brighton.<\/p>\n Ronaldo missed much of pre-season and has made it plain he wants to leave United before the close of the transfer window, mostly in order to play Champions League football. His 18 Premier League goals last term were not enough to lift United into the top four.<\/p>\n Among other things, he looks over his shoulder and sees that Messi, who will be targeting a long run in the Champions League with PSG, is only 16 goals shy of Ronaldo\u2019s all-time record of 141 goals in that competition. A blank year for CR7 would almost certainly narrow that gap.<\/p>\n The difficulty is that the kinds of clubs who might promise Ronaldo a strong season in the Champions League are not jostling to prise him away from United. A reunion with Real Madrid is far-fetched, a return to Juventus even less likely.<\/p>\n Messi, by contrast, last week heard the Barcelona president, Joan Laporta, say he would like the club legend to return one day as a Barca player.<\/p>\n Messi, tied to PSG at least until next summer, did not even bother to respond. He is just too busy and happily finding his groove in Paris.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"