>>149139222
Almost exactly the opposite is true.
Messi played at an incredible level from his debut until at the very least 2019, sadly Barcelona was greatly mismanaged in his later years at the club and this didn't materialize in more international wins (though they did clean the house domestically more often than not, notably against RM).
Cristiano was amazing at the start of his career with his explosive speed as a winger, but that stopped being the case and he then found a good niche later on when RM was formed around a Modrić and Kroos midfield and needed some to score tap ins, which Cristiano is undoubtably the best at. I'm not being sarcastic here, people say "tap in merchant" as if it's a bad thing but there's a reason no anyone can do just that.
But after leaving RM, no other team he played could match the level of well oiled machine that the RM midfield was, so even if he could keep very good numbers in other leagues while playing weaker opposition, he was never again as successful as in RM. Anyone who's even trying to be neutral about this and considers Messi's time in PSG as a failure (by most metrics it was), would have to accept that CR's time at Juve was a failure as well.
Old Ronaldo also didn't accomplish much in Arabia just as old Messi hasn't accomplished much in America, and it's rather hard to expect them to at their ages.
And of course, disregarding Messi's WC as "rigged" is just cope, and even if we were to ignore that, you'd have a hard time arguing how CR was "dominant" in this years Nations League when he was completely dependent on his teammates playing for him to score the tap ins. Which again, it's ok, that was the game plan Portugal's coach came up with. But it's clear that CR was not the most important piece in Portugal's team.
6/12/2025, 4:20:45 PM
No.149136751
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