Argentine legend Diego Maradona says there is little to separate Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo and his Barcelona rival Lionel Messi, and and feels Neymar can soon bring himself to the same level as the stellar duo.
Messi and Ronaldo rivalry has dominated the footballing landscape this decade, perhaps taking the baton from Maradona’s own dispute with Brazilian great Pele over which of them is the sport’s greatest player ever.
Having emerged from the cursed shadow of a ‘next Maradona’ to establish his own legend, Messi has won eight Liga titles and four Champions Leagues in 12 years as a senior Barcelona player.
And the former Argentina skipper does not believe his compatriot is in anyway better than Ronaldo -a four-time league champion in England and Spain as well as three-time Champions League winner who seized a crucial advantage over Messi in the race to be this era’s greatest this year as he captained Portugal to Euro 2016 glory.
“These two are superior to the rest. Messi isn’t better than Cristiano Ronaldo and vice versa,” Maradona told Marca. “Ronaldo always shows great passion and, honestly, it bores me to repeat that Messi doesn’t have to win a World Cup to be a phenomenon. Enough of that!
“If you don’t have personality, and don’t sing the national anthem, then you should be left alone. The kid had every right to retire from the national side in the summer, and then he returns and still gets criticized!”
Messi has lost all four of his major finals with Argentina and reversed a retirement after going down to Chile in this year’s Copa America finale, but Maradona maintains the Barca star remains at Ronaldo’s side.
International success makes Ronaldo favorite for this year’s Ballon d’Or, a fourth win would take him one behind Messi’s record tally of five.
