There just doesn’t seem to be an end to the Lionel Messi vs Cristiano Ronaldo debate. Some prefer the Portuguese for his elite mentality, others go for the Argentine for his magical abilities. As far as AC Milan legend Marco van Basten is concerned, there’s a clear winner between the two.
Van Basten, who is among the most respected footballers in the world, made quite a bold statement as he said that those who rate Ronaldo over Messi ‘know nothing about football’.
“Cristiano is a great player, but those who say he is better than Messi know nothing about football, or they are saying it in bad faith,” the 57-year-old said in an interview with Corriere dello Sport.
“Messi is one of a kind. Impossible to imitate and impossible to repeat. A player like him comes along every 50 or 100 years. As a kid, he fell into the football genius pot.”
Van Basten also picked the three greatest players of all time. Quite surprisingly neither Messi, nor Ronaldo made that list for the Dutchman. When it comes to the comparison between Maradona and Messi, the 57-year-old went with the former as he had ‘more personality’ in comparison to his successor.
“Pele, [Diego] Maradona and [Johan] Cruyff are for me the three greatest players in history,” Van Basten told Marca. “As a kid I wanted to be like Cruyff. He was my friend. I miss him. Pele and Maradona were also incredible. Messi is also a great player, but Maradona always had more personality in a team. Messi is not the one who puts himself at the front to go to war.”
“I’m not forgetting Cristiano Ronaldo, [Michel] Platini or [Zinedine] Zidane,” he further said.
Both Ronaldo and Messi had average seasons by their own standards. While Ronaldo scored 18 goals as Manchester United finished 6th in the Premier League standings, Messi only bagged 11 goals across all competitions.
