Ronaldo and Messi are considered the two greatest players in football history, as they have set new standards with extraordinary achievements at both club and national team level.

Together they dominated world football for over a decade, with a combined total of 15 Ballon d’Or awards and a host of records that are unlikely to be broken in the future. Ronaldo and Messi faced off head-to-head in the fiery El Clasico era between Real Madrid and Barcelona, before entering the final years of their careers in Saudi Arabia (Ronaldo) and the US (Messi).

In Europe, Messi spent most of his career winning trophies with Barca, before spending two seasons at PSG, where he added two Ligue 1 titles. At international level, Messi has won two Copa Americas and completed his trophy collection by helping Argentina win the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Meanwhile, Ronaldo has won domestic titles in three different countries. Although he has not won the World Cup, CR7 still left a big mark with the EURO 2016 championship with the Portuguese team.

While the debate over who is the greatest player of all time is never-ending, former players have come out in favor of Ronaldo in a survey by The Athletic. The results of the survey were surprising.

The news agency conducted a survey in 2023, with 35 questions related to various football topics. One of them was: “Who had a greater career, Messi or Ronaldo?”. The results showed that 66% of the votes went to Ronaldo, while Messi only received 34% of the votes.

However, when asked who former players would rather play with, Messi won overwhelmingly with 72%, compared to 28% for Ronaldo.

Not for the first time, Ronaldo has called himself the best player in history. In an interview with El Chiringuito on the occasion of his 40th birthday, he affirmed: “I am the most complete player who has ever existed.”

CR7 also pointed out statistics about his goals and titles to strengthen his argument. However, Messi’s former teammate, Javier Mascherano, now head coach of Inter Miami, had a different opinion when asked about Ronaldo’s statement.

“I have a lot of respect for Cristiano and I don’t need to analyse what he says. That’s his opinion. But I personally have my own opinion, and it’s not like that,” he said.