In all my years of watching football, none of the rivalries I have witnessed has come anywhere close to the ongoing – which has been on for the past 10 years – rivalry between Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo. The just concluded El Clasico which saw Messi outclass CR7 by grabbing a brace to take his overall tally to 500 goals, and helped Barcelona run out 3-2 winners, has once again shifted the title favouritism of “World Best” (as Usual) from Ronaldo to Messi. Remember that barely five days earlier, Ronaldo was labelled the best after bagging 100 European goals after scoring a hat-trick against Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
Granted, both players are among the top best to ever play the game with all the achievements, awards and accolades they’ve won – both individually and with their respective teams. No pundit, analyst, fan or “hater” is far off the mark when the title of “World Best” is laid on both player’s shoulders week in week out.
However, diving deep into what makes a player the best in the world will show the many cracks in the current system; why CR7 and Messi are not world-best materials anymore: and why there are many other players who have deserved and still deserve the title more than both legends. Because from the looks of things, the criteria for being the world best nowadays is dependent on “how many goals you score.”
Let’s take a trip down memory lane to the times when current Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane and the legendary “snake-bite merchant” Ronaldinho were going at it. Both players were complete to the core and beauties to watch. Zidane’s slow, peaceful and calculating style of play was a clear contrast to Ronaldinho’s skilful, fast-paced and energetic handling of the ball. Zinedine won the Balon d’Or for his exploits in Juventus and France in the 1998 and he scored just three goals that season. It was the same with Ronaldinho winning it in 2005 when he scored 26 goals. In those days, it was clear that goal scoring wasn’t a criterion. And even the likes of Ronaldo De Lima was more than a goalscorer which was why he won the award in 1997 & 2002.
Even though Zizou and Dinho had an amazing rivalry, there was still space for the likes of Pavel Nedved, Luis Figo, Fabio Cannavaro, Michael Owen, Kaka, Andriy Shevchenko and Rivaldo to win the most coveted individual honour a footballer can achieve. In an ideal football world and system, the likes of Thiago Silva (PSG), Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Neymar (Barcelona), Iniesta (Barcelona), Hazard (Chelsea), Kroos (Real Madrid), Pogba (Manchester United), Sanchez (Arsenal), Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid), etc., would all be likely candidates for winning both the Balon d’Or and FIFA World Best Player.
However, now it seems that football fans label the best in the world on whoever outscores the other between Messi and Ronaldo. But if we are being critical, players like Sneijder and Iniesta who aren’t prolific goalscorers but are amazing footballers should have won the award in 2010 and 2011 respectively. And if the title was always about goals, then the likes of Thierry Henry, Ronaldo De Lima and Raul would have been swimming in the World Best trophies.
Yes, both Messi and Ronaldo are legends, world best materials and prolific goalscorers. But once you remove their goalscoring records, you will start seeing just how many other players deserve the award(s) more. Though the wait for the first player that’ll win the award besides them is set to continue now that Ronaldo has bagged 100 European goals and Messi has bagged 500 career goals in the same year.
