Original Ronaldo (and by ‘original’ the football media simply means the first of two incredible modern footballers who happen to share a name), has once again given his considerable backing to Lionel Messi in the Argentine’s head-to-head with his Portuguese namesake, Cristiano Ronaldo.
‘O Fenomeno’ played for both Barcelona and Real Madrid in his stellar career, so he cannot be accused of favouring one club or another.
Like any rational football lover, the legendary World Cup winner acknowledges that both Messi and CR7 are rare talents at the very top of their game.
But as he has long maintained, in his opinion, La Pulga Atomica comes up trumps.
It is frequently suggested that CR7 is the ‘more complete’ of the two players, but in an interview with AS, ‘O Fenomeno’ suggests the opposite is in fact the case.
"I would stick with Messi," he said.
"It is difficult. It is like when you are looking to buy a house and they offer you many nice ones, but you need to pick one.
"Messi seems more complete to me, or at least more decisive. In the important moments, he appears and scores goals."
Regarding any similarities between himself and Cristiano Ronaldo, the great Brazilian claims that only their names and their love for scoring goals are the same.
"We do not look alike when we play," he said.
"I was more a centre-forward, and you could say he is a second striker.
"Cristiano, in his most recent stage at Madrid, has learned to score goals. And scoring goals is the most beautiful thing in the world. If you score so many goals, you must be very good. Nobody scores a lot of goals by getting lucky."
Meanwhile, while Messi and CR7 may be the two best players of their generation, the original Ronaldo says it was much more difficult for him to scale the heights when he played.
During his era, Ronaldo explains, there were far more truly world class players than there are today.
"For me, there is less competition now," he said.
"I do not want to be the typical guy saying things were better in my day, but I look around now and I just see those two.
"Maybe Neymar is coming, but he has a long way to go yet. But in my time there were many great players. I competed with [Zinedine] Zidane, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, [Michael] Owen, [Luis] Figo, [Gabriel] Batistuta… there were many players who made their teams great. Now I just see Cristiano and Messi, although the truth is they are very, very good."
Read: CR7: I’d Vote For Myself. O Fenomeno Wouldn’t
Read: Messi And CR7 In Goal Duet
