Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi

The fight has been going on for YEARS. The two best young talents since Ronaldo in 1999.
Stats- CR7 - 54 Appearances, 53 Goals, 14 Assists
LM10 - 55 Appearances, 53 Goals, 24 Assists
So whos better?
-Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are both ruthless finishers. There's no need to compare there. They are the last people you want on a breakaway against your team.
-They're both extremely speedy, with Leo on the edge on Acceleration and CR7 on the edge in Sprint Speed
-Ronaldo is a beast in the air. he can score a header from almost anywhere. Now you can't blame MEssi for his height so we'll leave Leo out of this for now
-Vision : Lionel has just OUTSTANDING vision. Those 24 assists didn't come from anywhere you know. But not that Ronaldo doesn't have great vision either. It's just that CR7's isn't good enough for him to use every time he touches the ball. So Messi wins this one. Undoubtedly.
-Ronaldo can score from ANYWHERE. Distance. Penlties. Headers. Dribbles. Set Pieces.
Not that Leo can't score from these but he just isn't as good as the Beast over in this category.

• Dribbling : Ronaldo=Tricks Messi=Magic
  Lionel Messi is the BEST dribbler I have seen. The guy just floats past the defenders without even breaking a sweat. Sometimes I think that God kinda over-powered the guy.
  Ronaldo is a brilliant dribbler. His tricks, finesse, and touch of the ball is unmatched, but I don't find his dribbling as effective as Messi's because Ronaldo needs space to dribble, and if he can't find that space he shoots for goal.
• Stamina : I think CR7 wins this one. Messi only improved his stamina this year, he had crap stamina before. Ronaldo always keeps sprinting to the full 90 minutes.

Overall jurisdiction : Messi wins. Barely. As a Real Madrid fan I would not hesitate to say that Messi wins. But I hope I gave you guys some brain food because Leo is in a team full of playmakers, Ronaldo can only get the attention of the likes of Ozil, di Maria, and Benzema. So feel free to criticize and share your opinions. Chao

@Lilywhite Did I ever told you your the biggest Ronaldo fan I met on this entire site? Not saying its bad or anything, it just, you don't even argue Ronaldo is better than Messi, you just state as if it was a fact. Anyway, sorry about that, its not that I have a problem with your opinion, I just don't share it. :P Ronaldo and Messi are both the greatest player of their generation in my opinion. :D

@Golazo I dunno mate, last time I checked, Messi was still pretty important for the Argentina national team. :D But yeah, Ronaldo have been great for his country recently. :D

@lilly Nice one :D

@tiki Remember mate, do not troll, I know thats banter right there but I'm counting on you not to start a (heated) debate here. ;)

Cristiano has always been more important for Portugal than Messi for Argentina ;) Messi = Barcelona, nothing more nothing less.

@Golazo

If you think that then you need to go re-watch Argentina's matches in the World Cup 2014 and the Copa America. Messi single-handedly took his country to the final in both tournaments.

Last time Ronaldo leaded his team to WC final ? Being best player of a competition ? Ok thanks...

The only Euro he won he had 2 good games out of 5, missing the final but his team was good enough to win without him.
Aside Getting Rooney red carded what did he achieve ? A haircut In 2014 ?

Compare Ronaldo to Suarez, Messi is something different, Really...

The funny part of this is that Ramos singlehandedly won every Madrid big trophy lately, he won more pts for Madrid than the official striker consistently feeded, yet same people would claim he deserves BO at the end of the season...

It's ok I mean Argentina is a huge football nation, even before Messi played they had a whole bunch of stars and even if Messi is not there you can still make a world class attacking team with the rest of the players, Portugal is much smaller and even so they won Euro and got to Semi Finals of the World Cup.

Messi was "best player in the world" 2010, went to the World Cup, didn't score a single goal, while his teammates Xavi and Iniesta won the World Cup, they kicked out Cristiano 1:0 while Argentina went on beating Mexico 3:1 and then lost 4:0 to Germany.

2014 Argentina was going steady with 1:0 wins over mighty Switzerland,Belgium and Netherlands that were on a roll and goals scored by Di Maria, Higuain and on penalties as they went to the final and lost 1:0 to Germany, again.

Overall, Cristiano achieved something that nobody did before for his country, he was the leader both off and on the pitch and made history for Portugal, Messi can't repeat what Maradona did which makes him still second in his own country at best and after losing in Copa America 2 years in a row to Chile said he doesn't want to play for his national team anymore which caused controversy, that's the difference.
Cristiano was always there in good spirit for his country and made the key difference that made them go to the World Cup and win Euro.

I'm sure that Messi tried his best but he was also not happy getting some individual awards of World Cup's and Copa America's when he knows those things don't matter if he can't win for his country.

Actually it doesn't matter for him, he is not the kind of player loosing the league and happy being Pichichi in the last game...
And Ronaldo may have been a dressing room leader, the pitch leader was Pepe at the Euro...
And better beat Belgium and Switzerland by a small margin than loose in group stage against : Germany 4-0 and be eliminated by Ghana-USA...

Even by your logic and no matter how you turn it, Messi still did better than Ronaldo on national level so better not go that direction....

Btw why are you bringing that argument ? Is it the only one that could back up the fact Ronaldo " being better " ? I guess so...

Argentina side is aging and got terrible coaches, Zabaleta, Aguero and other PL players were roasted in June, Higuain lost incredible chances in both Copa and WC finals feeded by Messi. Biglia or Rojo are worse than any Portuguese 23 players, and Romero is not even titular in his club, only Di Maria seemed to give Messi some choices and the guy still singlehandedly qualified them in group stage by last solo goals against Iran or Bosnia, then a brace against Nigeria...if you add the Huge pressure Messi had on his shoulders comparing to Cr....

I think we watched same WC, right ?

@emo defending Messi is like defending big blind with pocket aces, debate is never going much farther so relax ;)

I think Cristiano Ronaldo is much better for his country than Messi for his own, after all Argentina did alot of games with Di Maria solo carrying them and making plays, if Messi isn't there, there are at least a few guys from that team that can take over a game and win it for Argentina, Cristiano is too much important for Portugal.

Pressure on Messi is bigger though, that's one thing that he has because he is from a bigger football nation and everyone expected him to become a new Maradona but his attitude proved to be his downfall after he retired from the national team for a short while.

If only he wasn't the one that should take games in his own hands and win them, maybe someone else would have done it for him and he would still get the glory, but that didn't happen so far.

Messi does have a bigger weight on his shoulders because he is from Argentina but it also goes with having a more capable teammates.

Overall I think Cristiano Ronaldo sacrificed himself much more for his national team, both physically and emotionally, Messi does have bigger shoes to fill but if he trully is as great he will be able to do so in the end, so far he hasn't done it.

Without Messi Argentina could have been eleminated from WC qualifiers, they welcomed him as a saver and he is saving them atm. Ask Gonzi he will tell you what you probably don't want to hear. Anyway you can have your preferences but denial is not something I would debate of it...

Emotionally :D yeah sorry thought we are talking Football, anyway have a good day/night.

Yea, Cristiano has been much more invested in his own national team, there is no secret in that specially after the Copa America loss Messi was so cold hearted and said he is quitting. It's all part of football too.

Ok.

One Last thing, without CR7 Portugal won the Euro, without Messi, Argentina was being eleminated from WC qualifiers...

And lets imagine for a second you are right, doesnt make Ronaldo a better player at all, in fact it's your only back up argument and he is not even valid. Repeat it as much as you want, doesnt change anything on the outcome when both retire...

I think that it's easy to say that Cristiano played the whole Euro, got injured in the final after 25 minutes and came off but continued to support his team from the sidelines, he also carried them to the World Cup scoring het-trick away vs Sweden, he lost as captain vs Spain 1:0 that won the World Cup that same year.
First time Portugal won the Euro was when they had Cristiano in their team, when he was younger and just starting his career they had other team leaders such as Rui Costa, Deco, Figo and they lost the Euro Finals, but now with Cristiano as the leader history was made.

Messi, played in Copa America, wasn't able to win it from Argentina, played in World Cups, wasn't able to win it for Argentina, playing or not and Argentina is a much bigger team than Portugal.

Copa America 2007 Messi played whole game and Brazil won 3:0, played whole game vs Germany in World Cup lost 4:0 and next time 1:0, played and was captain in some games and lost.

Messi was always capable of doing magic in Barcelona when it matters and when he was with Xavi and Iniesta at their prime but without them, he went to the World Cup 2010 as the world's best player and couldn't score a single goal while Iniesta was scoring in World Cup Finals.

That's the difference, Messi couldn't fill in the big shoes of Maradona, so far nobody could, but Cristiano overcame Eusebio and Figo for his country, although it's a far more difficult task for Messi, a great player of his caliber was expected to do so but so far failed.

Again doesnt make him a better player overall, you can repeat it as many times as you want.
If Portugal was that weak, France would have trashed them, and being number one like Ibra in small Football nation doesn't make you the best, if it was the case Shevchenko would be the best player ever...
We can compare Maradona to Messi and those who watched both attest Messi is the best of both, videos as proofs.
Ronaldo footballing IQ cannot be compared to Maradona, maybe Van Basten or Gert Muller at best, but never Maradona...
So again, repeat your only invalid argument in my eyes, doesn't make it any further...

When Barca midlefield retired/collapsed from false 9 he turned to be a true 10, and won the treble WITHOUT XAVI, so again your feeded by Xavi/Iniesta is outdated.

Now imagine Actual Ronaldo with poor midlefield ?

Many times the whole team is lifted up and play great for their player that is missing, got a red card or got injured so your argument is invalid.

Shevchenko was one of the best forwards in the world during his prime so no excuse.

Maradona is still the number 1 in Argentina and world for so many people around the world, Messi didn't win, not with other world class players in the national team nor playing solo nor whatever you want it to make it, while Cristiano is a part of a winning Euro cup team, the captain, first ever, case closed no need to talk about it more.

The only way for Messi to fill in the shoes of Maradona is to win which he could only do with Barcelona so far, Cristiano won with Manchester United, got golden Ball first for that amazing team since George Best which already makes him one of the best European players ever but then he won with Real Madrid too, broke records and won with his own national team, his legacy is set in stone when it comes to several teams not just one, which is the case for Messi.

There is a reason why the best managers this game has ever seen have said that Cristiano is the best player they have trained, those words were said by Sir Alex Ferguson,Mourinho,Ancelotti, no need to say how much he has done everywhere, he has been the winning component for 3 teams that he has played his career for, no doubt that what he did for Portugal is so far much more influenced than when Messi did for Argentina, again there are different standards because Argentina is a bigger team, but even as bigger, Messi has been uncapable to reach the glory which doesn't make him bigger than Maradona.

And no need to bring up what Messi did in Barcelona, I already stated that he has been amazing for that one team, but that's not his national team which is what I have been discussing about so your argument about Barcelona doesn't fit there you need to re-think the subject and match what you want to say with what matters in the current discussion.

Fact is, Messi was the best player in the world 2010, went to South Africa and didn't do much at all, while the rest of his team that made him the best player won the World Cup with Spain. That shows him at a different squad, the national squad.
Going to Copa America and losing twice to Chile in the final, does that make him better than Maradona? Losing 2 world cups to Germany with the total score of 5:0 does that make him the hero of his national team?

In an interview with Sport, Gary Lineker spoke in detail about the joys of watching Barcelona, the possibility of Leicester in the Champions League and the future of football.

Here, he reserved special praise for Lionel Messi...

"I never thought I'd see a better player than Diego Maradona, but Lionel Messi is. Even on an off day, he does things that take your breath away. The only thing people can level at Messi is that he hasn't won the World Cup yet – well, he got pretty close.

"Lots of players have won World Cups who were pretty bang average. It's a fact."

That was Gary Lineker, i can find you many neutral legends having the same vision...

Now Stats of Messi vs Maradona of 2015, 3 seasons lacking to Messi + retirement.

Ronaldo phenomeno from your perspective is the real Ronaldo ;) 2 world cups 15 goals in WC ;) you will find a way to say " but he has no CL " you know Im starting to know how you reason... even put in a corner you will still bring same argument again and again.... I'm out of here hope you enjoyed the read.

And what about the best player in 2014, loosing in Groupstage to Germany 4-0, mighty Ghana and Historical USA ? I guess I don't have the right to turn your arguments against you lol. At least Argentina lost in Quarters to Germany coached by pointless Maradona...