I think both are great players but only one is an all-time great as of today. That person is Cristiano Ronaldo. Many people believe Lionel Messi is the GOAT an opinion I strongly disagree with. Most of the arguments for Messi being the GOAT centers around his record breaking numbers of trophies. Here is the thing regarding the GOAT status. If you do not dominate in almost every statistical category and is not credited as a founder of something game changing within the field, your GOATness is likely just GOATesque and forever up for debates until someone better completely passes you in the GOAT debates. Messi can’t even shake off Maradona as the best Argentina player ever, that trophies record won’t do much in this debate given he only has one trophy from uncontested greatest trophies of them all in the sports, the World Cup. Several greats have two and Peele has three.
The biggest issue Messi will face in future years, once he retires, is he does not hold the most important statistical record important in probably just about every single sports, scoring points. Let’s be honest, four trophies from MLS counts into his trophy tallies as well. I am simply unsure how serious the trophies records will be taken if someone is able to go to a lower competition league and amass a large number of these. Ronaldo is known to be the undisputed but physically conditioned athlete in history. Ronaldo’s stronger cultural relevance global reach and his longevity will probably set him apart. Ronaldo is also the first billionaire footballer and the likely the first football billionaire active player. Ronaldo also appears to be more popular than Messi in some of the most populous countries.
Due to Ronaldo’s physical conditioning and physical gifts like his height advantage over Messi, something that can’t be learned, even though Ronaldo is about three years older, I predict Ronaldo will likely play at least four more years likely enough to reach the historical 1,000 goals mark in the biggest sport in the history of the world has ever seen that has never been accomplished by any one in nearly 150 years of modern soccer history, by any of the 250 million registered soccer players nor by the 130,000 active professional soccer players in 4,000 clubs across 130+ countries. Throughout history, there were probably been a million plus professional soccer players. Soccer has around four billion fans, many of them in some of the richest countries in the world. All this is to say is Ronaldo is a historical great. Bring up the trophies record that include four from the MLS seems to be a job if that record is to be taken seriously. I know my sports, I live in America and I know the level of competition in MLS versus the top leagues and I know about its fan base composition. Would people be mad if Ronaldo get like 20 trophies in the league he is playing at now and subsequently break Messi’s trophies record? The biggest underestimation of Ronaldo’s greatness is he is Mr. Portugal football. Portugal would never be a football powerhouse without Ronaldo. In Argentina, if it weren’t Messi, it likely would have been someone else given then continent and the country’s dominance in football. Ronaldo singlehandedly turned a football no body into a top football power where Portugal is consistently top five in the world in football rankings.
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Ronaldo versus Messi, The GOAT debate.
At the end of the day, to me, Messi is just a glorified “Rudy” in terms of athletic gifts who just happened to be in the right place at the right time with the right conditions like how Messi only was able to play in the Olympics at 21 when his team’s new manager convinced the board to let him play despite his team winning the case to not be obligated to let him play in that Olympics. Ronaldo is the much more physically gifted athletic than Messi in probably most people’s eyes. If you look at the record books, Messi’s trophies record does not seem all that unbreakable. In the right conditions, Ronaldo could even break that record. I think the other likely reason why I believe Ronaldo will likely play for at least four more years to play with his son on the same time and at the 2030 World Cup. The 2030 will be cohosted by Portugal, Ronaldo Jr. Qualifies from an age standpoint at around 20, plus he is already part of Portugal U-16 team. This makes all this very possible. For these reasons, it will be extremely difficult to not make Ronaldo an arguable GOAT at the very least. Records are important in GOAT debates. Even Kareem was in the NBA GOAT conversation for years because of his points record and large number of championships won. However, legacy frequently dominate the GOAT conversation which is both quantified and qualified. What you got and how you got them seems to also matter. In this case, Ronaldo has the more charisma, more important records and the points to prove it.
The trophies record is too vague of a record to be taken seriously. Levels of competition is obviously different across leagues. I know Ballon d’Or is important too, but is Kareem’s six MVP better than Jordan’s five and why is Jordan considered the GOAT by some with less points and the same amount of championships? Anyway, the standard for Ballon d’Or a French magazine issued award in collaboration with the UEFA, appeared to have shifted to align with the EUFA calendar. Ronaldo played in a non-European league for several years and currently still play there hence haven’t won one during that time where as Messi played in France between from August 2021 to June 2023 in France and won in 2023 when he was around 36 years old, both amazing and kind of coincidental right? The way I see it, Ronaldo is like Alexander the Great who accomplished everything through natural pure power and skills whereas Messi is one of the thousands of rulers in history who came to power through palace intrigue, numerous lucked out events and help from many. Ronaldo basically was born into abject where as Messi was born into relatively much financially stable family. Since both Ronaldo and Messi’s son are in various academies playing football, I think the GOAT debate will continue with how well their sons do in soccer in the coming years. I think there is a high probability that Ronaldo’s oldest son will play in 2030 World Cup which means he will play along side his father Ronaldo while Messi’s oldest son won’t for the same World Cup. Due to that World Cup being co-hosted by Portugal, Portugal will be automatically in making this decision much easier for the National Team. Even though from a marketability standpoint I know who may hold the advantage based on geographical reasons, for social contract reasons I will not discuss here. I think I know who I think the GOAT is in soccer. As already the European soccer GOAT, I personally believe Ronaldo’s rookie chase cards are tremendously undervalued.