The question of how much these two other-worldly players inspire each other is an interesting one, and it’s tempting to imagine Messi sitting at home on Tuesday night, watching Ronaldo destroying Atletico, angrily glaring at the TV screen and growling: “Right, I’ll show him!”
As appealing as that picture might be, however, it is probably a false one – from Messi’s perspective, at least.
He might show it in a different way, but Messi is just as competitive as Ronaldo. Rather than goals and personal glory, however, the Argentine’s personal drug is trophies.
Ronaldo, it can be said, never looks happy on the field of play unless he’s just scored a goal – and even then he’s not happy for long, because he just wants to score another one. And that relentless obsession with finding the back of the net has undoubtedly played a major role in his stunning career achievements.
Messi, though, is a different animal, shown by the generosity with which he sets up team-mates even if he has a chance to shoot, regularly hands over penalty-taking duties to others and invariably celebrates a goal by turning straight to the player who passed him the ball with an appreciative smile.
Leo Messi [Spoke after the win over Lyon] full of praise for Cristiano Ronaldo:
— RMadridBabe (@RMadridBabe) March 14, 2019
"What Cristiano Ronaldo did was impressive. i thought Atletico would be tougher. Ronaldo had a magical night with three goals." pic.twitter.com/dIO2J8WF96
Rather than being a better player than Ronaldo, Messi’s main motivations – according to the people who are close to him – are being the best possible version of Lionel Messi, and winning as many trophies as possible.
That theory was supported by Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers when he
Do Messi and Ronaldo inspire each other?
“Maybe subconsciously in some
Messi and Ronaldo ferociously competing with each other for everyone else’s acclaim is a nice story for fans to debate and the media to spread, but it’s probably not particularly true.