Lionel Messi has spoken with characteristic warmth and generosity about his legendary rivalry with Cristiano Ronaldo, describing their years of head-to-head competition as a beautiful sporting rivalry that was never anything other than respectful at a personal level.
Speaking in a recent interview on Argentine television with Pollo Alvarez, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner reflected on a rivalry that defined an entire era of football and produced some of the most compelling individual duels the sport has ever seen.
Messi was candid and thoughtful in his assessment, making clear that the intensity of the competition on the pitch never spilled over into anything more personal between the two men.
“Our relationship was always good and respectful. Everything that happened was purely in a sporting aspect, not personal,” he said. “We only met at matches or at award ceremonies, but we always got along very well with each other. Now we are in different stages of our lives, but what happened was simply a beautiful sporting rivalry.”
He elaborated on the natural conditions that made the rivalry so inevitable and so captivating for fans around the world. “This is natural in the world of football. I played for Barcelona, he played for Real Madrid, and we competed in everything, both at the team and individual level, so people were always comparing us. But our relationship was always good and respectful, and everything that happened was purely sporting. There was nothing personal about it. We did not meet often, except at matches or award ceremonies, and we always got along well.”
The Messi-Ronaldo rivalry reached its peak intensity during the nine seasons both men spent in La Liga simultaneously, from 2009 to 2018, when Messi was at Barcelona and Ronaldo at Real Madrid. During that period they competed for everything, La Liga titles, Champions League crowns, individual awards and scoring records, with barely a whisker separating them in any given season.
The battle for the Ballon d’Or was perhaps the most visible expression of their rivalry. Between 2008 and 2022, only twice did the award go to a player other than one of the two of them. Messi ultimately collected eight of the prestigious trophies to Ronaldo’s five, but the numbers alone do not capture the relentless pressure each man placed on the other to keep improving, keep scoring and keep winning.
The two men are at very different points in their careers today. Messi continues to play for Inter Miami in MLS, where he remains a box office draw of unparalleled proportions. Ronaldo, at 41, is still playing for Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia and earlier this week scored his 100th Saudi Pro League goal, adding yet another milestone to a career of extraordinary longevity.
