Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have a rivalry that was born ever since the Portuguese midfielder won his 1st Ballon d’Or award back in 2008 with Lionel Messi coming in 2nd place. This was during the time when C.Ronaldo was a player of Manchester United, even though he was still not playing in the Spanish League with Messi there still existed a sense of competition between both players.
The rivalry reached new scales after C.Ronaldo made his way to Real Madrid and got the chance to compete with Lionel Messi on a more direct level as they had to see each other during the Spanish League matches on 2 different periods of time throughout a season.
Whenever those players are compared a debate is usually brought up as fans can never actually agree on which one is the better overall performer. C.Ronaldo is generally considered to be the more complete player as he has a physical presence which allows him to take headers fairly easy as well as being capable of plowing right through defenders just because of his sheer strength meanwhile Messi is generally labeled as the most naturally skillful player as he can slip his way past everyone by flicks and dribbles.
For the longest time, the media has propelled a series of rumors stating that C.Ronaldo and Lionel Messi do not have a healthy relationship due to all of the fierce competition that exists between them but the Portuguese star of Real Madrid has spoken to the press and shut down those rumors.
“It’s not at all true that we have a bad relationship. We are colleagues and have a professional relationship. We don’t have a relationship outside of football like I have with some other players. He tries to do his best for his club and national team and I do the same. There is a certain rivalry where we are each doing our utmost for our teams. This rivalry is part of my life. It is only normal that people compare us’’ C.Ronaldo told reporters as he responded to a series of questions and rumors that involved him and Messi not having a good relationship.