The new year is less than a full month old and already the two best footballers on the planet, Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, have scored hat-tricks, won games single-handedly for their clubs and reinforced their status as the best in the game.
I guess you really haven't been following up on Ronaldo then, but typical for you to be wrong if you don't even watch half of the games they play in. The best teams know how to compliment their players, and regardless, I'm not gonna even bother to bring up the stats on assists.
@KingPin, it'll be hard to surpass what Messi has done this season, but winning the CL and Copa Del Rey would be a good idea for Ronaldo..lol.
I watch Real often as I do Barca and one thing I notice with Messi is most of his goals are scored in the box with great build up play. Without that build up play Messi goes missing like he does with Argentina.
Ronaldo often scores goals from outside the box or on the counter attack and very rarely while one on one with the keeper as Messi does so often.
Both are two of the greatest to play football I just question Messi's desire for a challenge. He like it easy in a league where players rarely slide tackle and give him plenty of room to work his magic.
nes, seriously, if Messi wins La Liga and UCL and loses the goalscoring battle to ronaldo, messi wins ballon d'or. Ronaldo wins La Liga and Supercup and loses goalscoring battle to messi, messi wins ballon d'or.
its just the facts, nevermind the stats. lol
like i said, it doesnt matter. messi wins ballon d'or.
Well just the other day against Malaga, Messi would get dragged down by their defenders, he couldn't just dribble past them because there was either a shirt pull or they double up on him. I don't think he sees the league as being easy, but more of Barca being understanding of his playstyle, I agree that he disappears sometimes in games, but a lot of great players do when the midfield isn't working efficiently. I do hope one day that he goes to another big league to show his wonderful skill.
Sorry, replying to something you said below... how does Messi go missing for Argentina when he scored 12 goals in 9 games for them last season? He has scored nearly as many goals for Argentina as Ronaldo has for Portugal, and in far less appearances. Messi has near 2:1 goalscoring ratio for his country. I don't know where people come up with the whole "he doesn't play well for Argentina" argument. It's just not true.
i think they got that argument from the amount of goals he scored for club compared to country.
2011 - 13 games 4 goals. 2010 - 10 games 2 goals. 2009 - 10 games 3 goals. compare that performance to what he does for barca in 10 games.
im not disagreeing with you. im just shedding light on where the argument comes from. as you can see, for barca in 10 games he scores much more in a year than 2/3 goals.
another thing is that messi is a striker, ronaldo is a winger so its kind of hard to debate it head-to-head who's better.
@buddymagoo I have to say Ronaldo is the better player to. There is no doubt Messi is a world class player but Messi is also helped by the Word Class team he is in. Barca are streets a head of everyone at the moment and it makes Messi's job a lot easer. Ronaldo on the other hand is streets ahead of everyone in the Madrid team and he has also proved him self in the EPL and the Spanish league.
I don't think messi could come to the EPL and get over 40 goals in one season even in the City team.
Its not even close Messi is by far the superior player.
Only united fans think otherwise.
Ronaldo will always be in Messi shadow.
buddymango how can u criticise Messi desire for a challenge, he plays for the best club team in the world, in the strongest lge in the world, why would he ever leave Barcelona for a crapy team like stoke.
i think the whole of portugal will disagree with you.
and you just missed the whole point buddy was making. a great player can play in any team, regardless of how many good players are around him.
if you were to put these guys in teams where they had to work more, ronaldo would come out on top. its like how scientists have control experiments.
he isnt saying messi and ronaldo should sign for stoke. lol
as for ronaldo being in messi's shadow, he really isnt. its just the good old media making it look that way. if you were a soccer fan and watched the games instead of reading other peoples opinions you would know. one example i could give you to show you how it started was when messi scored 200 goals for barca and the media boasted that accomplishment. and then said "ronaldo only has 100 for real madrid" not taking into account that ronaldo scored more than a 100 goals for manchester united before that. what they didn't say was messi payed for 5 years at barca and scored 200 goals. ronaldo played for madrid and in 2 years scored 100 goals. like i said, the media twist it to make a good guy and a villain. both players are exceptional. only a tool or die hard fanboy will say one isn't as good as the other.
"if you were to put these guys in teams where they had to work more, ronaldo would come out on top." LOL!! One of Ronaldos biggest criticisms is the frustration he has when playing with 'lesser players', we have seen this many times for Portugal. He had a good Euro 2012 but even in some of them matches he was strolling around the top half of the pitch and not tracking back with a sour puss on his face.
Both players are class but I believe Messi edges it. I'm not a Barca fan at all, in fact I hope Madrid smash them tonight, but I'm not a Utd fanboy either, where I think your bias for Ronaldo comes from, like most Utd fans.
KingPin I like how you didn't list Messi goals fo Argentina in 2012 12 in 7 app
Messi argentina 76 (31)
Ronaldo Portugal 100 (37)
Messi doesn't need to prove himself in prem lge, plenty of average players score bagfulls of goals in the prem lge, kevin phillips, yorke, heskey, kevin davies, sutton etc.
Yeah, for someone like KingPin who quotes "facts" so often that's a pretty big one to miss... I wonder why!?
And you are correct, the Premier League teams, even the top teams, leak goals. Messi would run riot there. Just because Sky Sports commentators always boast the PL as the best league doesn't mean it's true. It might be the most entertaining, but that's only because it contains lesser teams who leak more goals.
who cares.
messi wins the ballon d'or anyways.
When I try to compare these players I think would would play better for Stoke or West Ham and I always think Ronaldo.
Messi is great in the box with team build up and with free kicks but Ronaldo scores spectacular individual goals from all over the pitch.
Its not even close Messi is by far the superior player.
Only united fans think otherwise.
Ronaldo will always be in Messi shadow.
buddymango how can u criticise Messi desire for a challenge, he plays for the best club team in the world, in the strongest lge in the world, why would he ever leave Barcelona for a crapy team like stoke.
Messi and its not even close. Ronaldo is not even better than Cavani and RVP
KingPin I like how you didn't list Messi goals fo Argentina in 2012 12 in 7 app
Messi argentina 76 (31)
Ronaldo Portugal 100 (37)
Messi doesn't need to prove himself in prem lge, plenty of average players score bagfulls of goals in the prem lge, kevin phillips, yorke, heskey, kevin davies, sutton etc.