The Tottenham attacker believes the Portugese is a better all-round player than the Argentine magician, as the race for the Premier League's most sought-after man hots up
Tottenham forward Gareth Bale says Cristiano Ronaldo is a more "complete footballer" than Barcelona's Lionel Messi.
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No really i love bale not for what he said but because he is a really great player and can be world best...
after messi netting 100 goals in a year, that argument is getting a bit silly now
Messi has a greater advantage in terms of the quality of team mates around him.
But no one comes close to Messi at this present time, most professional footballers, coaches agree he is the best football player ever.
at least 2 of those 4 were handed to him.
but i know you are a messi fan so il be gentle in my explaination.
Messi wins La Liga and UCL and loses the goalscoring battle in 2010-11 but they say "goals dont matter as much, titles is whats its about and the team success contributes to individual" yet in 2010, iniesta and xavi wins every trophy messi does including a world cup and walk away empty handed. fair? i dont think so.
Ronaldo wins La Liga and Supercup and loses goalscoring battle 2011-12 but they say "its a individual award why are you bring up team success? messi scored more goals.
but you are right in saying he has goals. trophies, yeah but even those are not solely due to his performances but mostly the team around him. not saying he doesn't contribute, he does do a lot but not all of it like the fanboys make it out to be.
as for ronaldo being a more complete player, id say he is. its just people that favor messi choose not to see it. if ronaldo is beating keepers from 20-30 yards out, everyone says "but he cant dribble like messi." "he isnt a team player like messi" when ronaldo dribbles/passes and taps it in. they all say "he didn't do that on his own. his team mates did all the hard work. still not as good as messi."
another stat you going to hear a lot of now is the fact that messi scored 300 goals for barca. an impressive achievement by many standards. pity nobody mentioned ronaldo passed the 300 club goal mark 5 goals ago. i guess all his manchester united stats don't count so they conveniently leave it out.
but ive said this before, il say it again...
messi and ronaldo are on the same level above every other footballer this generation. you going to have to wait at least 30-50 years to see players like this. neymar and bale will be world class, no doubt. but messi and ronaldo class was last seen when maradona was on field and that was in the 80s. wonder how many 11x2 users actually seen the 1986 world cup live or even the 1990 one where argentina finished second. i know i have, thats why i know legends when i see it. <and yes, i am too old to be trying to educate the young football fans who think they seen it all>
On to who's the more complete player, I'd go for Messi, freekicks? They use to say he couldn't do it, now scored one the other day and has done so before even against Casillas. He's a better dribbler imo head to head, he doesn't score from afar because that's not his playing style. I don't see Ronaldo dribbling past 2-3 players or making wonderful back to back passes in order to open up a clear shot for himself. But that's okay, he has a different style of skill. I think Ronaldo fans love to ignore how many assists Messi has.
In regards to players that I have watched, I remember 86 just about and remember maradona but my favourite ever player was roberto baggio, not as good as messi, maradona, ronaldo but still a great.
you are a barca/messi fdan so anything anyone tells you will also be disregarded all the same.
in 2010, you say messi contributed a lot towards the trophies they got. now i don't know about you, but to me the world cup holds more value than UCL. now surely you would agree that xavi and iniesta contributed just as much to barcas success and to spain success in the world cup. surely if they did that one of them should win the ballon d'or. <i should point out coz you keep missing it, im not saying ronaldo should have won the ballon d'or> im saying there were other more deserving players.
and in 2011/2012, barca didn't win any big trophies of note. all messi did was score goals in a calendar year. half of those goals were already rewarded in 2010/2011.
on the other hand ronaldo scores 7 hattricks, wins 2 trophies, scores against every team in the league in a single season <which has never been done before in the history of spanish football> yet the guy that won nothing wins the ballon d'or. if you fail to see the logic here nothing i say is going to open your eyes.
and i'm not saying messi doesn't deserve the other 2 ballon d'ors he received. but in 2010/2011, i honestly thought xavi or iniesta would've walked away with it coz for me they did much more than messi. but every award now is between messi and ronaldo that they overlook other players. they just like "messi did more than ronaldo, messi wins."
i dont go to great lengths to defend ronaldo.
i merely bring up facts to which i expect reasonable counter arguments other than "messi is better" <pokes fingers in ears> "lalalalalalalala" .
and i know the ballon d'or is voted by managers and team captains. but like i said, they like "messi did more than ronaldo, messi wins." not taking into account xavi/iniesta won everything messi has including a world cup. A WORLD CUP.
FYI- how is saying iniesta/xavi should win a ballon d'or in 2010/2011 in favour of ronaldo? <rhetorical question but i know you going to try an answer it> im merely presenting a mutual argument that would make more sense to the barca fans to see the opposing side of the argument.
and i may be related to CR7 ;) you never know.