It doesn't matter if you're a soccer fan or not, the waves of their rivalry in the soccer world is denitely undeniable for everyone. Irrespective of your gender, either you like soccer or not, either you're a fan or not, you've definitely heard both names mentioned once if not more than once before. Or it's either you've probably seen them on TV, on Newspapers, heard two people/parties arguing about them and stuffs. This is because they are the two best players that ever coexisted in the world of football and the best rivals as far as football world is concerned.
So talking a little about the former, Lionel Andrés Messi (born 24th June 1987) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward and captains both Spanish club Barcelona and the Argentina national team. Often considered the best player in the world and widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Messi has won a record six Ballon d'Or awards, and recorded six European Golden Shoes. He has spent his entire professional career with Barcelona, where he has won a club-record 34 trophies, including ten La Liga titles, four UEFA Champions League titles and six Copas del Rey. A prolific goalscorer and creative playmaker, Messi holds the records for most goals in La Liga (448), a La Liga and European league season (50), most hat-tricks in La Liga (36) and the UEFA Champions League (8), and most assists in La Liga (183), a La Liga and European league season (21) and the Copa América (12). He has scored over 700 senior career goals for club and country.
And the latter, Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (born 5th February 1985) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward for Serie A club Juventus and captains the Portugal national team. Often considered the best player in the world and widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Ronaldo has won five Ballon d'Or awards and four European Golden Shoes, both of which are records for a European player. He has won 30 major trophies in his career, including seven league titles, five UEFA Champions Leagues, one UEFA European Championship, and one UEFA Nations League title. Ronaldo holds the records for the most goals (132) and assists (41) in the history of the UEFA Champions League. He is one of the few recorded players to have made over 1,000 professional career appearances and has scored over 750 senior career goals for club and country. He is also the second player to score 100 international goals, and the first European to achieve the feat.
Messi and Ronaldo Rivalry was born when the Diego Maradona play-alike had his first Ballon d'Or in Barcelona. He has definitely did some amazing things which has made him known to all as a wonder boy such as his great performance against Getafe where he scored a goal that's exactly similar to Diego Maradona's. This partuclar event catapulted Lionel Andrés Messi to spotlight. Unlike Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo has made a name for himself before he was signed to Real Madrid. He won his first Ballon d'Or when he was still playing for Manchester United in 2008.
Basically, the rivalry started between them when Cristiano Ronaldo signed for Real Madrid in 2009. At that moment, Messi had no Ballon d'Or to his record but was already known as a very prominent young player in Spain. And Voila, his (Messi) first Ballon d'Or was won at the presence of Cristiano Ronaldo in Spain. So Cristiano Ronaldo won his first Ballon d'Or in England just to come to Spain and see the second one taken away from him by some dwarf (as he would thought that time lol).
It would have been a more interesting one for the Portuguese if they had shared the Ballon d'Or one by one year by year but Lionel Andrés Messi added salt to his (Ronaldo's) injury by winning the next one (2010) and the next one after that (2011) and the next one after that (2012) before Cristiano Ronaldo was able to have a taste of what Ballon d'Or is like again. Lionel Messi set a record by winning the FIFA Ballon d'Or four times consecutively which no player in FIFA history has ever done before. Ronaldo also did won it two times consecutively (2013 and 2014) before Messi won his fifth one in 2015 after which he (Ronaldo) later levelled things up by winning 2016 and 2017. Then Lionel Messi topped his Ballon d'Or gallery up with one more in 2019 to make it 6 (and one more than Cristiano Ronaldo's) after Luka Modric won that of 2018.
The rivalry was not only limited to the players, as both clubs coach are also rivals on the pitch. Ever since the arrival of mourinho in 2010, he's never been in good terms with then Barcelona coach (Pep Guardiola). This also extends to both players Sportwears sponsor (Adidas and Nike) as Adidas that have been a longtime rival of Nike sponsors Messi's wears while counterpart, Nike sponsors Ronaldo's. La Liga was the favourite league of most football fans as at the time their rivalry was still hot and El Classico made more fans went crazy as it's more than just a match for most. But all that, was before Cristiano left Spain in 2018.
Ever since Cristiano Ronaldo's departure from Real Madrid to Juventus, the rivalry between himself and Messi has died down since the both players are no more in the same league and not clashing on the same pitch anymore. Since then their only chance to meet is if the UEFA Champions League brings them to see each other. In a nutshell, Ronaldo and Messi have not played against each other on the pitch like they used to do then ever since their last clash on May 6, 2018 before the Portuguese left Real Madrid In a match which ended as draw (2-2).
Tonight, another history will be made as the best rivals in the history of FIFA will have the chance to meet each other again for the first time since 2 years ago. Both of their teams are in the same group in this years UCL. Both players were supposed to meet during the previous Juventus Vs Barcelona match in the UCL group stage where Ronaldo's side was defeated 2-0 by Lionel Messi's but Ronaldo was out due to some rumour that he was exposed to coronavirus. But tonight, the best rivals in soccer history will face each other again.
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Some informations source - Wikipedia
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