Sometimes in life you have to make difficult decisions. LeBron or Kobe? Chipotle or Qdoba? Angelina Jolie or Jennifer Aniston? Either party usually has an undying loyalty from fans who can't understand how someone could possibly choose the other. Angelina over Jen? Like, seriously?
Another raging debate—this one in the sports world—asks, Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi? Both players have incomparable talent and play for two of the world's best clubs in Real Madrid and Barcelona, respectively. Although most people agree Ronaldo and Messi are the top two footballers on earth, each side furiously defends their star as if either one was their own child.
At least that's the case for me.
I am an avid supporter of Cristiano Ronaldo and truly believe he is the world's preeminent talent on the field, but it is hard to ignore the case Messi is making to soccer fans around the globe that he may, in fact, be No. 1.
Although I admittedly have never given Messi the credit he deserves, his performance this past season has been an eye-opener. The stats don't lie: the 22-year-old striker from Argentina has scored an astounding 27 goals in 25 La Liga games this season and eight goals in nine Champions League matches.
Four of those nine came last week against English Premier League team Arsenal that, although depleted, should never allow a one-man show to embarrass such a prestigious club so thoroughly. And it's not like each goal was a repetition; Messi exposed the Gunners in multiple ways.
His first goal, which found the upper right corner from 18 yards out, was spectacular, but it was his third and fourth tallies that really caught my eye. To complete his hat trick, Messi streaked toward the net from just past midfield and, after seeing the keeper charging out, chipped the ball directly over the goalie's head and watched it roll in. As for the fourth one, I suggest you just look it up on YouTube—it's that good.
One of my main qualms with the soccer media is how they take one game, such as the Arsenal one, and use it to make a case for a player being the world's best. I admire such brilliant performances, but it takes more than a single match to define a player.
Same thing goes for ridiculing someone's performance—if a striker doesn't score a goal in three straight matches, it's seen as a ""drought"" and they have ""lost their touch."" Obviously Messi has proven all season he is not a pretender, but I'll start with a sip of the Kool-Aid before I start yelling, ""Oh yeah!""
No more evident was the media's tendency to overvalue a solitary game than last Saturday's ""El Clasico."" ""El Clasico,"" for those who don't know, consists of the two meetings each La Liga regular season between Barcelona and Real Madrid. Messi and Ronaldo. Surely the winner of this game proves who the best is?
For Messi supporters, yes; for Ronaldo supporters, no. Admittedly, Messi had the better game having scored a great goal to Ronaldo's goose egg. But the headlines after the match? Absolutely ludicrous.
""Leo makes a fool of Cristiano in the clash of the stars"" read the Catalan daily Sport. Apparently, the paper forgot that forwards and wingers don't match up against each other on the field so it's hard to say Messi made a fool of Ronaldo. The article went on further to say that Ronaldo is ""light years"" from Messi's level.
Wasn't it just two years ago when Ronaldo was the FIFA World Player of the Year and scored a mind-boggling 42 goals in 46 matches? Playing as a winger those numbers are unheard of. And it's not as if his production has dropped off that dramatically. He has notched 25 goals through 30 games, including 7 in only 5 Champions League appearances. So much for blaming CR9 for Madrid's inability to advance. Although Ronaldo haters will forever cite his tendency to showboat, dive and not show up in big games, he still rightly owns a place among the top two players on the planet.
So what can possibly put an end to the debate? For me it will take the course of their careers to put it to rest, but the media will hype it otherwise with 2010 being a World Cup year. Neither player has proven much of anything on the world's biggest stage, so this is the year either one can establish themselves as the top footballer if they catapult their countries—Messi's Argentina and Ronaldo's Portugal—to the later rounds. Until then, enjoy watching Kobe dethrone King James in the NBA Finals.
Who's better: Messi or Ronaldo? E-mail Jack at doyle2@wisc.edu.
