Two eternal rivals battle to be numero uno

JUST when you thought Cristiano Ronaldo has got out of the way of his eternal rival, Lionel Messi, by leaving La Liga for Serie A, it seems there is no ceasefire in this “ego war”.

Ronaldo, who left Spain’s Real Madrid for Italy’s Juventus, declared on ITV on Tuesday his intention — to be the world’s undisputed best player.

And the tone of the Portuguese wizard is such that he is not content to be the numero uno in the present time but in history as well. Pele and Maradona risk being sidelined to the “past pages”.

In the ITV interview, Ronaldo even quipped that he wanted the title of “No 1 in the world” to be etched onto his tombstone, for being the best in history.

Ronaldo is bent on putting to rest the never-ending debate of who’s better — Ronaldo or Messi.

How will Ronaldo settle this, which is more about battling for the world’s biggest bragging rights? By what measurements or standards to separate the two serial antagonists?

Ronaldo, it appears, is serious about this issue. He pointed to the Ballon d’Or award to settle this, and that’s not hot air talk.

Ronaldo said he wants to win the Ballon d’Or award three more times, which means being acknowledged as the world’s best player another three times.

At present, Ronaldo and Messi have both won the Ballon d’Or five times each.

Brash or not, it takes a man of great confidence and great determination to say this. And Ronaldo, at 34 is at an age that is considered past his prime.

Yet, Ronaldo, who still possesses the physique of an Adonis, strongly believes he is in shape to win three more Ballon d’Or — at a time when the word “retire” is on the minds of many of his contemporaries. One thing is for sure, Ronaldo is going to train as hard as before — now that he has stated his goal. So the great RonaldoMessi rivalry continues — not in the Clasico but at world level.

CR7 and the Flea. They feed off each other — the more achievements by either of them, the fiercer the rivalry.

Messi, 32, is more reserved than Ronaldo but expect the Barcelona magician to let his boots do the talking in the Champions League and be in line to win more Ballon d’Or awards.

In Malaysia, it is apparent that more fans here would think Ronaldo is the greatest, not Messi. Over the years, more Malaysian fans have been seen wearing Ronaldo’s No 7 jersey than Messi’s No 10.

And Ronaldo can claim to be the “greatest athlete” on social media. CR7 is more popular than Messi on Facebook as he has 122 million followers compared to Messi’s 89 million.

Ronaldo has also scored more than Messi on Instagram as this year’s figures show that he has over 168 million followers while the latter has 120 million followers.

Though Ronaldo has not come to Malaysia before while Messi did set foot on Kuala Lumpur, the Argentine superstar did little to win the hearts of Malaysian fans.

In 2013, Barcelona came to Shah Alam Stadium (after Barca deemed the National Stadium turf not fit for football) for a friendly match against Malaysia but Messi disappointed Malaysian fans when he did not even play a single minute as the Catalan side won 3-1.

Messi’s contribution was walking to the bench wearing slippers, which drew a huge roar from Malaysian fans. He was apparently rested due to a thigh injury.

We will know whether Ronaldo is getting closer to his world goal when the winner of the 2019 Ballon d’Or award is announced in December in Paris.