Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi? It\u2019s the debate that has kept soccer fans entertained for over a decade. While some are content to appreciate both players, others sit very firmly on one side or the other of the debate. <\/p>\n
But according to Ronaldo himself, the \u201crivalry\u201d between the pair has disappeared since they swapped European clubs for pastures new \u2013 Ronaldo moving to Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia and Messi to Inter Miami in the US. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see things that way, the rivalry is gone. It was good, the fans liked it. Those who like Cristiano Ronaldo don\u2019t have to hate Messi. They\u2019re both very good, they changed football history,\u201d the 38-year-old Ronaldo told reporters while preparing to play in European Championship qualifiers with Portugal. <\/p>\n
Ronaldo and Messi spent the height of their careers playing in Spain for Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively, which helped to heighten the rivalry between the players \u2013 and their fans. <\/p>\n
While playing in Spain, the pair dominated the sport. <\/p>\n
Messi ended his time with the Blaugrana<\/em> with an impressive four Champions League titles, but Ronaldo left Spanish football having won five, including an unprecedented three in a row with Los Blancos<\/em> from 2016 to 2018. Messi also added 10 LaLiga titles and Ronaldo won two. <\/p>\n In terms of individual honors, the pair won 12 of the 13 Ballon d\u2019Or awards handed out between 2008 and 2021 \u2013 Ronaldo winning five and Messi winning seven, respectively. <\/p>\n Throughout their time in Spain, the pair also broke goalscoring record after goalscoring record. Messi ended his Bar\u00e7a career with a staggering 672 goals in 778 games while Ronaldo scored an astonishing 450 in 438 games for Real Madrid. <\/p>\n \u201cWe are respected throughout the world, it\u2019s the most important,\u201d Ronaldo said. \u201cHe is following his path, I am following mine. He\u2019s done well, from what I\u2019ve seen. We carry on, the legacy continues, the rivalry \u2013 I don\u2019t see it that way.\u201d <\/p>\n He added: \u201cI have said, we shared the stage for 15 years and we ended up, I wouldn\u2019t say friends, but we are colleagues and we respect each other.\u201d <\/p>\n With many players securing big-money moves to soccer clubs in Saudi Arabia, Ronaldo spoke about the criticism that has been leveled against the Saudi Pro League (SPL). <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s normal to criticize, which league is not criticized? Where aren\u2019t there any problems or controversy?\u201d he queried. <\/p>\n Ronaldo also credited himself with growing the league and attracting other star players to join. <\/p>\n \u201cI knew, and I keep saying, everyone thought I was crazy \u2026 The crazy is not so crazy anymore,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s become normal to play in the Arab league.\u201d <\/p>\n Since Ronaldo made the move to Saudi Arabia, Neymar, Karim Benzema, N\u2019Golo Kant\u00e9, Kalidou Koulibaly, Edouard Mendy, Roberto Firmino, Sadio Man\u00e9 and Marcelo Brozovi\u0107 have been among the star names to move to the SPL. <\/p>\n \u201cAs an Al-Nassr player, I knew this was going to happen, it is a privilege to change the culture of a country and football, having big names makes me proud. I was a pioneer, and I am proud of that,\u201d Ronaldo outlined. <\/p>\n \u201cWhat I want is to continue to grow always, may it become world class.\u201d <\/p>\n\n Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi? It\u2019s the debate that has kept soccer fans entertained for over a decade. While some are content to appreciate both players, others sit very firmly on one side or the other of the debate. But according to Ronaldo himself, the \u201crivalry\u201d between the pair has disappeared since they swapped European <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8012,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8011","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} \u2018I was a pioneer\u2019<\/h2>\n