Messi vs. Ronaldo: One Rivalry, Two GOATs, and the Era That Remade the World's Game

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Ronaldo is Portugal's all-time top scorer with 128 goals (in 205 appearances), and Messi is Argentina's all-time top scorer with 106 goals (in 180 appearances). Highest-rated player in FIFA 08 – Ronaldo (91) tied with Ronaldinho (Brazil; Barcelona) and Gianluigi Buffon (Italy; Juventus) No one has ever accused me of being a soccer fan which makes this book an unusual choice for me. It’s a great read that not only covers the rivalry between Messi and Ronaldo but paints the soccer world as a crazy soap opera where the only romance is between each player and himself. The amount of profligate spenders who’ve infiltrated the game (mainly Middle Eastern and Chinese actors) seems like a huge net negative on the sport. Not only have they bid up prices on assets to crazy levels but they also are not at all motivated to break even, so they’re skewing the very laissez-faire business to a race to the bottom. Seems like the era of homegrown talent is out and so many of these huge signings don’t pan out. Ronaldo has won the Puskas award for best goal in a calendar year (2 nominations), whereas Messi has so far failed to win this award despite being nominated 7 times.

The World Cup final is here. For a sports fan this past month has been a dream. I struggle when baseball season ends and the NFL is primarily one day a week. This month, I have been watching the football of the rest of the world for the past month and bonding with my husband and son, who are fanatics, in the process. Even I know Messi and Ronaldo, how could I not, so I wanted to get this book read in time for the final game, which is starting as I write. I had been on Team Ronaldo for most of the month until his nation got eliminated. Usually I am on Team Ronaldo only because in his broken English he encouraged “another Goat” to stay out of retirement. That aside, my husband has always rooted for Brazil, so by default I would not root for Argentina, and that has kept me off of Team Messi. For today, I have joined Team Messi, only because he has said that he is done with international competitions after this World Cup, and it is always a moving moment when an athlete goes out on top. The first bit of advice for reading this book comes early – the authors state that this is not intended to be a dual biography of the two legends but instead a thorough look at their careers from playing the game early in life through their rise to their professional teams by examining the business side of international soccer and how it affected them. There is in-depth information on the two clubs that both players spent the bulk of their careers, and it is no coincidence that they are two of the most famous clubs in European soccer – Real Madrid (Ronaldo) and FC Barcelona (Messi). Because of both the celebrity of the players and the name recognition of their clubs, Messi and Ronaldo’s rise in fame also helped bring a revolution in the business of international soccer. But at least it’s a worthwhile read. Written by a pair of Wall Street Journal reporters, Messi vs Ronaldo mercifully refrains from systematically going through their two careers season by season in a blur of goals and records. Instead, the emphasis is on the personal, drawing heavily on interviews with individuals who had ringside seats for both players’ rise to the top. The American perspectives of the authors are sometimes too noticeable – Walter Smith is referred to merely as “one of Ferguson’s assistant coaches from outside Glasgow”, Clive Tyldesley described as “an announcer” – but the writing is strong and detailed overall.Ronaldo still has more all time career goals than Messi though (Ronaldo has 867 career goals and Messi has 821 career goals), but Ronaldo has played 150 more games over his career than Messi has.

Let’s begin by comparing each player’s club career, starting with their domestic league achievements.Because he often comes deep to receive the ball, dribbling is still a major part of Messi's game, completing an incredible 3202 dribbles in the league and Champions League, compared to Ronaldo's 1687 successful dribbles (since 2003/04). The pair have monopolized these awards for well over a decade. From 2008-2021, the only other footballer to have won a Ballon d’Or has been Luka Modrić (Croatia) in 2018. So, this story is all about how their circumstances when they first discovered their talents, how they had to leave their closest people to reach their dreams, how they traveled when they faced happiness and problems, how they dealt with these problems. There’s no protagonist and antagonist here, both of them are compete each other on the field, but they’re both fine and have respects each other outside of the field. They both competed to be the best for nine years in the Spanish League, of course, with different teams. Messi with Barcelona whose team relies on a game of match domination, playing beautifully every game, as well as their philosophy that has been built since the 1970s, and the result over the last few decades they are more dominant than other rivals. Meanwhile, Ronaldo with Real Madrid, which is a club justifies any means to win to get the title, regardless of playing good or not, buying expensive players every year, they even dare to play dirty to destroy Barcelona's dominance in the 2012 era.