#4 The drive to go one better than Ronaldo
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo’s rivalry is well documented, with both men dominating the footballing landscape in a manner not seen before or possibly ever again for over a decade.
For nine years in La Liga, both men contested against one another, in their personal battle for supremacy, with their performances so otherworldy that other players left them alone in their duopoly of the individual awards.
It was almost comical the way they set about their contest, as each laid down a marker for the other, almost unspokenly daring the other to achieve it (which more often than not was done).
40-goal seasons (which in times gone past were the highlight of world-class strikers careers) became the norm, and it was considered an anomaly if any of the pair failed to hit that mark.
Every fan in the world was on one side of the debate over who was better, and a recurring (somewhat stale) theme on most football sites has been childish banter and jibes on who the better player is, with both sides having valid claims.
Golden Boots became child’s play for both men, as the art of goalscoring which was previously in such high demand that a 25-goal season striker was considered elite became so commonplace that you had no shot at glory except you performed extra-terrestrially (like Salah did last season).
All the individual accolades were won in this time (although Luka Modric broke the chain with his clean sweep this year), and both men are currently tied on five apiece in terms of Ballon d’Or wins (Ronaldo deserves special praise for his dedication to level it from a seemingly insurmountable deficit of 4-1).
Ronaldo departed Real Madrid for Juventus in an unforeseen move in the summer to break the La Liga party, but as long as both men continue to sweat it out on the green grass, they would always be in competition regardless of whether they are separated by Oceans or border lines.
So far this season, the eternal pair have shown signs that Modric’s Ballon d’Or win was nothing but a slight disruption in the chain and that it would be back to business, as usual, this season.
Both men sit top of their respective league’s scorers charts, with Lionel Messi taking it a notch further by also topping the UCL scorers chart as well as the assist table in La Liga.
Ronaldo and Messi are tied on five Ballon d’Ors apiece, and whoever triumphs in next year’s edition would have the upper hand in settling their grand debate once and for all, as both men’s advancing ages means they would not have too many more shots at the prize, and you can bet that Lionel Messi would not want to sit back and watch Ronaldo overtake him, having equalled from 4-1 down.