Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have continued to play on due to their competitive spirit which means they ‘can’t stand each other’, former Liverpool defender, Jamie Carragher claims.
Ronaldo netted a hat-trick for Al-Nassr against Al-Wehda this weekend, taking his aim tally for the season to 47 strikes before Messi dazzled for Inter Miami by grabbing five assists plus a goal of his own in a 6-2 win over New York Red Bulls in the USA
The 2 players have scored 1,500 targets during the last 20 years – with Messi claiming eight Ballon d’Ors and Ronaldo earning 5.
Ronaldo, 39, and Messi, 36, have endured a rivalry as they battled for the acclaimed particular person prize throughout many years. Carragher believes their longevity is right down to their hatred for one another as they always attempt to ‘outshine’ one another.
Talking to Football365, he stated: ‘They undoubtedly made one another higher. However I feel they most likely can’t respect that till they’ve completed. Whereas they’re taking part in, I guess they’ll’t stand one another.
‘It doesn’t matter what one did, the other would come again at them. They may by no means rest. They may by no means take pleasure in what they’d done as a lot as a result of they knew the opposite one could be coming again at them to go and get extra targets.
‘I all the time felt that if one among them scored a hat-trick, the following night the opposite one would go and get a hat-trick. They needed to all the time fully outshine one another.’
Carragher added that it was exceptional to see two players win the Ballon d’Or so many times and doesn’t believe football could have two high gamers like Messi and Ronaldo play for thus lengthy on the high again.
‘Usually, if somebody would win the Ballon d’Or two or 3 times, they have been an absolute god,’ he added. ‘These two have been each successful it 5, six, seven instances. And also you’d assume, ‘If Ronaldo wasn’t right here, Messi most likely would have gained the Ballon d’Or 12 instances.’
I’ve by no means seen anybody have the longevity on the high of these two. Possibly somebody might get to their degree for 2 or three years, however to go for so long as these gamers have, I’m unsure we’ll ever see that once more.
The Sky Sports activities pundit added that the rivalry between the pair would have been more durable for Ronaldo to deal with as a result of ‘seven or eight people out of ten would say Messi was the better player’.
He added that narrative ‘should have pushed Ronaldo on’ to turn into higher and better to score more goals and win more trophies.
