Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde is eager to see how Christiano Ronaldo’s departure will affect Real Madrid.
The tactician has further pointed out that the decade-long rivalry between his star Leonel Messi and Ronaldo may take another perspective. He is also looking forward to seeing how the Portuguese captain arrival will impact on Serie A.
“Ronaldo’s departure would seem to have ended the competition between Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo because people rarely mention one without mentioning the other. A lot of people are interested, me too, to see how it will affect Real Madrid’s football and what they might do in the transfer market, and also knowing that Ronaldo is at another club and what that might mean for La Liga and the Champions League too,” Valverde said.
On Barca and how they will fight to keep their La Liga title, the tactician affirms that keeping the same spirit like last season remains his priority.
“I’d like to keep the same team spirit that we had last season. It’s not always easy to do that throughout a whole season, especially in a team like ours that always plays to attack. Opponents generally haven’t stopped us playing in matches and that’s essential if you want to maintain your consistency and end up as champions. I think we have to keep that.” he said.
“We made a huge effort to always stick together, both in attack and defence. We had a horrible day against Roma and we have to be careful in those one-off situations. In competitions like those, the Champions League or the World Cup, it can all come down to a single mistake on a single day. You have to be especially focused.” he concluded.
Born and raised in central Argentina, Messi was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency as a child. At age 13, he relocated to Spain to join Barcelona, who agreed to pay for his medical treatment. After a fast progression through Barcelona’s youth academy, Messi made his competitive debut aged 17 in October 2004. Despite being injury-prone during his early career, he established himself as an integral player for the club within the next three years, finishing 2007 as a finalist for both the Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year award, a feat he repeated the following year. His first uninterrupted campaign came in the 2008–09 season, during which he helped Barcelona achieve the first treble in Spanish football. At 22 years old, Messi won the Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year award by record voting margins.
Three successful seasons followed, with Messi winning three consecutive FIFA Ballons d’Or, including an unprecedented fourth. His best campaign statistically to date was the 2011–12 season, in which he set the La Liga and European records for most goals scored in a single season, while establishing himself as Barcelona’s all-time top scorer in official competitions in March 2012. The following two seasons, Messi finished twice second for the Ballon d’Or behind Cristiano Ronaldo, his perceived career rival. Messi regained his best form during the 2014–15 campaign, breaking the all-time goalscoring records in both La Liga and the Champions League in November 2014,[note 3] and led Barcelona to a historic second treble.