Abu Dhabi: It has become one of football’s most enduring debates: Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo: Who is the best player in the world?
Over the past five years, this question has been asked feverishly and endlessly by pundits and fans alike — and many of them favoured Messi, the Barcelona talisman, over Real Madrid superstar Ronaldo. The little Argentine, it was widely felt, possessed marginally more innate skill and scored slightly more goals than Ronaldo — 73 in all competitions in 2011/12, for instance, as opposed to Ronaldo’s 60.
Not now. It would take a brave person to fashion a compelling case against Ronaldo being considered the world’s pre-eminent player, given that his scintillating scoring feats have reached stratospheric peaks unmatched by Messi in 2014/15.
His hat-trick in Real Madrid’s 5-0 Spanish La Liga demolition of Athletic Bilbao on Sunday was incredibly his third treble of the season — and joint-record 22nd in Spain’s top tier.
In all competitions, he has netted an unfathomable 17 goals so far this season, including 13 in just six league games. Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti is among the expert observers who believes his star’s claims to repeat his 2014 Ballon d’Or success as Fifa’s finest player on the planet are unimpeachable.
“I think there can be no doubt about Cristiano for the Ballon d’Or this year,” the Italian said on Sunday. “There’s no putting money on it.”
Ronaldo’s tally for the season comfortably eclipses that of Messi, who has seven goals in nine appearances in all competitions, six of which have come in the league. Yet his superiority in this thrilling football face-off cannot be measured in mere numbers alone.
There is the growing feeling that Messi may be past his best and not the explosive performer of old following a succession of hamstring injuries and relentless football from his late teens, despite being two years younger than the 29-year-old Ronaldo.
He now plays more as a deep-lying midfield orchestrator, happy to engineer assists as much as score goals following a trademark jinking solo run.
His shooting accuracy and resultant goals ratio have also declined, Messi having spurned a succession of good chances in the 2-0 win at Rayo Vallecano last Saturday, for example.
In contrast, Ronaldo’s powers remain undiminished. His scoring prowess, speed and awesome athleticism having been embellished by a more selfless approach in recent times.
Following his hat-trick on Sunday, he said he was revelling in the ‘BBC’ triumvirate he has formed with French striker Karim Benzema and the world’s costliest player, Gareth Bale.
“We are still getting better, this is still the start of the season,” said Ronaldo. “The ‘BBC’ is working well. We are used to playing together and we keep scoring goals.”
Yet, not so long ago, Messi’s scurrying feet arguably offered magical moments more often than the athletic Portuguese’s lithe limbs, while his feats of goalscoring were even more astonishing than those of his adversary. Chief among these were his 91 goals in a calendar year in all competitions in 2012, breaking German legend Gerd Mueller’s 40-year-old record of 85.
Ronaldo, meanwhile, netted “only” 63. Messi’s magnificence resulted in him winning his fourth Ballon d’Or in January 2013. By that stage, Ronaldo had only one Golden Ball to his name — and he secured that back in 2008. However, last year, Ronaldo finally proved statistically superior to his Argentinian nemesis with 69 goals in 60 appearances for club and country, as opposed to Messi’s 45 in 46.
Ticket to Brazil
His superb hat-trick in the second leg of Portugal’s World Cup play-off with Sweden in November 2013 earned his country a ticket to Brazil 2014 — and prompted Fifa to extend the voting deadline for the Ballon d’Or.
It was a controversial move, but one which was widely accepted, for any other result than a Ronaldo triumph would have been a travesty of justice given his stunning consistency of performance and goals galore.
In January, a tearful Ronaldo received the Fifa accolade from another great of the game, Pele.
However, he would not rest on his laurels and henceforth embarked upon an unyielding pursuit of more goals and glory to underscore his newly acquired status as the best footballer of the modern age. He ended the season with 31 goals in 30 games, winning the Pichichi award for being Spain’s top goalscorer and sharing the European Golden Shoe with Liverpool’s Luis Suarez.
In all competitions, he plundered a staggering 67 goals, including a record 17 in a single Champions League season.
Messi endured a far more fallow and frustrating campaign in comparison, dogged by injury and inconsistency for a lacklustre Barcelona, who failed to win a trophy under the uninspiring Gerardo Martino.
He still struck 28 goals and 41 in total in all competitions, but Ronaldo also bettered him in the silverware stakes with his second Champions League medal following his goal in the 4-1 win over Atletico Madrid.
However, the 2014 World Cup was viewed as Messi’s golden chance for redemption and opportunity to get one over Ronaldo, given that his star-studded Argentina side were rated as one of the tournament favourites.
Elusive global success would have also crowned Messi as the greatest player of all time in the eyes of many, supplanting his compatriot Diego Maradona.
Yet despite scoring four goals — an ailing Ronaldo failed to register on the scoresheet as Portugal suffered an insipid first-round exit — Messi could not emulate Maradona’s World Cup-winning heroics of 1986, enduring heartache as Germany beat Argentina 1-0 after extra time in the final.
Messi’s ignominy was completed when he was presented with the Golden Ball afterwards for being the World Cup’s best player. There were arguably other more worthy candidates for the award, including Germany’s Thomas Mueller, the tournament’s top goalscorer.
Ronaldo was later reported to have said he ‘would be sent to prison’ if he commented on this controversial decision, and in the new campaign he has sought to compound Messi’s misery by routinely outperforming him in their unofficial epic battle. It remains to be seen whether Messi can reach the celestial highs of old in response — and who would discount that from happening?
But, for now at least, Ronaldo remains peerless in every department. Except, that is, in terms of assists, with Messi currently leading seven-two over his Real counterpart.
