Some players, without too many opportunities to win titles through their careers, cherish their opportunities when a national cup competition is the one to bring them glory. For clubs like Real Madrid, and superstars like Cristiano Ronaldo, falling back on those kind of trophies after missing out yet again on the league championship and the Champions League isn’t something that gives him too much joy. More
Every time Real Madrid visit Bilbao to play against Athletic, Cristiano Ronaldo gets the awkward, abusive treatment from fans and players. No matter who good he’ll be and how much there will be an attempt to change his image, which has gone a long way from his early days in Spain, it’ll never be on par with the way Lionel Messi is treated. More
While last season may have been a more evident team effort from Real Madrid, this season it’s all about the scoring ability of Cristiano Ronaldo, showing his usual clinical finishing in Istanbul to send his team through into the Champions League semifinals for a third consecutive season, while proving a point about his goal scoring rivalry with Lionel Messi, showing he can be just as efficient. More
The current era in the Clasico rivalry between Barcelona and Real Madrid is pretty much defined by the moment Pep Guardiola became the head coach of Barcelona, changing the career trajectory of Lionel Messi. A season later Cristiano Ronaldo arrived, and Jose Mourinho a year after that. What was a Barca-dominated match up early on has taken a different direction in recent years. More
The truth needs time to be revealed, and while Lionel Messi is usually regarded as the more humble, quieter and nicer in the battle of superstars he has with Cristiano Ronaldo, proof of the opposite being the truth keeps coming out in small doses, the latest being some things a retired La Liga referee, Eduardo Iturralde González, said about the two. More
There doesn’t always have to be a winner. Not everything is American Sports, were draws and trying to reach for something that isn’t first place or victory just doesn’t exist. Lionel Messi might be better than Cristiano Ronaldo, but the better explanation in the eternal struggle and debate is that they’re just different. More
The usual depiction of Lionel Messi is of this humble, down to earth person only focused on football. Cristiano Ronaldo is usually portrayed as arrogant, self-absorbed, self-indulgent and quite busy thinking about how he is perceived by others. According to the two handling the same pitch invader in Granada matches, the opinions and prejudice might be wrong. More
Unless their careers suddenly take a very different path in the next few years, it’s safe to assume that despite Cristiano Ronaldo winning everything possible in club football and being as good as humanly possible on the football pitch, he’ll eventually be remembered as the second best player of his era, behind Lionel Messi. More
If it’s in the dictionary, it has to be true, right? It’s always amazing the spread of the Lionel Messi phenomenon reaches to. The latest installment in the growing craze around the Barcelona footballer is an inclusion of a new word in a certain Spanish dictionary, Inmessionante. More
There’s nothing to suggest there isn’t anything cosmic about the connection between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. Always the feeling that someone’s chasing someone, trying to outdo the other. Ronaldo got a raise? Messi finally signed his new contract with Barcelona. More