Ronaldo vs Messi and the beautiful game

SIR: Recently, the Real Madrid Football great Christiano Ronaldo once asserted in an interview that, “in my mind, I’m always the best. I don’t care what people think and what they say. In my mind, not just this year but always, I’m always the best”.

That Ronaldo is one of football’s all-time greats remains an unquestionable truism. But soccer fans, analysts, pundits and aficionadas have always argued about who is greater, Ronaldo or Messi?

Lionel Messi the Argentina and FC Barcelona forward, Balloon dor master, four- time world player of the year remains one of the greatest footballers of all time. But, is he greater than Christiano Ronaldo? Both of them are masters and mysteries of football. They understand the chemistry of football. If you watch Messi on his day, you will scream that this is magical and only divine. A Ronaldo on his day can become the extraterrestrial and unbelievable. But who is greater?

The aggression, speed, guts and physical runs and dribbles which Christiano Ronaldo puts in to score a goal is much more than that which Lionel Messi puts in. Messi floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee. I believe that both are gifted by nature, but Messi is 80 per cent nature and 20 per cent nurture and vice versa for Ronaldo. The philosopher Confucius in his Analects observed that, “Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it”.

We sometime ago argued that Pele of Brazil was greater than Stanley Matthews of England, that Diego Maradona, Tolstoy, Pasarela, Zico, Ronaldino, Alberto, Roger Miller and Abedi Pele were greater than Johanne Cruff. In Nigeria we have often argued that Tempest Ubaka was better than Kenneth Olayombo, Olowokere, Peter Anieke, Thompson Usiyan, Henry Nwosu, Martins Bomiaye, Jose Dombraye, Amasimaka Adokiye, Segun Odegbami, Christian Madu and Humphrey Edobor, etc.

It was Baron Gottfried Wilhelm in his book “Monadology” who said: “In nature there can never be two beings that are exactly alike.” Therefore, Messi and Ronaldo are great like all legends and the best as they see themselves. They have done beautifully well for football and that is what matters. Hence, Oscar Wilde in his book, “The English Renaissance Of Art” said that, “beauty is the only thing that time cannot harm. Philosophies fall away like sand, and creeds follow one another like the withered leaves of autumn; but what is beautiful is a joy for all seasons and a possession for all eternity”.

Christiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are living legends, the best in their own right and above all they have done beautifully well for the “Beautiful Game”. To compare both of them will only provoke unhealthy rivalry and stimulate comments made out of bias and prejudices. Indeed, the essayist Wadsworth Longfellow observed that, “the heights reached and attained by great men, were not reached and attained by sudden flight. They toiled all night whilst others slept”. May God bless Christiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and The Beautiful Game. And may He deliver it from the hands of FIFA’s corrupt syndicate and solipsistic aficionados and pundits.

• Bobson Gbinije
Warri, Delta State