Yassir Zabiri named Lionel Messi as greatest of all time (GOAT), ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo, after scoring a brace to give Morocco a 2-0 win over Argentina in the U-20 World Cup final.The 20-year-old gave the Atlas Cubs the lead with a sensational free kick in the 12th minute and doubled his tally in the 29th, volleying home a cross from Othmane Maamma. His two goals saw him finish as the tournament’s joint-top scorer with five, and he was also awarded the Adidas Silver Ball.After the full-time whistle, Zabiri took part in a player comparison game featuring some of the world’s greatest players. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo were the first names to be compared, and Zabiri wasted no time in throwing his weight behind the Argentine icon. The subsequent comparisons saw Messi pitted against Ronaldo Nazario, Diego Maradona, Pele, Ronaldinho, Achraf Hakimi, and Hakim Ziyech, but Zabiri insisted that Messi was better than all of them, including his compatriots.The Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo battle has continued to divide football fans. Despite being in the twilight of their careers, the pair continue to strut their stuff. Ronaldo became the first footballer in history to reach 800 goals in club football after Al-Nassr’s 5-1 thrashing of Al-Fateh on Saturday, October 18. Messi, meanwhile, is just 11 goals from reaching a milestone of 900 career goals and one assist shy of becoming the first player to register 400 assists.When Cristiano Ronaldo said Lionel Messi made him ‘a better player’While Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are rivals on the pitch, the pair share a mutual respect off it. Throughout their storied careers, each player has expressed admiration for the other. In 2019, when Ronaldo was at Juventus, he stated that his rivalry with Messi aided his progress. He told Portuguese channel TVI:"I really admire the career he has had so far and, for his part, he has already said that he had trouble when I left the Spanish league because it is a rivalry that he appreciates. It is a good rivalry that exists in football, but this is no exception. Michael Jordan had rivals in basketball, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost were great rivals in Formula 1, the only common point between all the big rivalries in the sport is that they are healthy. Messi makes me a better player and vice versa.He added:"I have an excellent professional relationship with Messi because we have been sharing the same moments for 15 years. I have never been to dinner with him but why not in the future? I would have no problem with doing that."To date, Messi has won eight Ballon d’Or, while Ronaldo has five.