Quote Originally Posted by Karius Is Boss View Post
But then the best players always play for the biggest clubs, and play alongside the best. One can hardly hold it against someone for winning too much. I don't care for the Messi/Ronaldo debate, but it seems a tad arbitrary to say because one player won one tournament, when he barely played in the final, it therefore makes him better than someone who hasn't. There's too much going on that is out of the player's hands. An £80m striker in Higuain misses however many one on ones across however many finals, whereas a raffle winner called Eder smashes one in from 30 yards.

And it works the other way as well. If Argentina won the Copa America next year, but Messi missed/came off in the final, that doesn't suddenly legitimise him as a better player. It's probably fair to say one had a better tournament than the other (a large part of that comes down to the Spain game, where they clearly had a game plan, and a performance they didn't repeat imo) but then Portugal didn't even get out of the groups in 2014 and Ronaldo only scored one, whereas Messi scored 4, scoring decisive goals in every group game.

I think what I'm trying to say is, the world would be a better place if there was never another one of these debates.
The best players play for the biggest clubs but at the very top level when people compare greats it starts coming down to the fine margins. I prefer Messi but I can also understand why people prefer Ronaldo. In football, people always ask these questions. You see a player killing it for a smaller club, you wonder if he can do it with a bigger club. Can they do it in Europe. How about in another league or at international level. For me, Ronaldo has done it all so I don't really have much else to question about his ability.

I think Messi is retiring from International football soon. Still a great player but outside of the Ronaldo comparison, he has the Maradonna comparison on his shoulders and they've always hoped he'd surpass Maradona. Has he? You may hate these type of debates but they'll continue because everyone will want to discuss the greatest of all time. International records get dragged into the conversation because of the greats like Maradona and Pele.