ACTING THE GOAT

Cristiano Ronaldo last night became the fourth player to score in four World Cups and stroked his chin as he ran in celebration. The apparent message? I’m the GOAT, not Lionel Messi.

GOAT is the acronym for “greatest of all time”, and Adidas is running an advertisement featuring Messi with a real goat.

Real Madrid’s Ronaldo and Barcelona’s Messi have been the world’s top players for the past decade and rivals in the Spanish top flight. Each player has won the Fifa Player of the Year Award five times.

Ronaldo completed his sixth international hat-trick in Portugal’s 3-3 draw with Spain. Having entered the tournament with three career World Cup goals, last night he doubled his total. The Portuguese has now scored 84 international goals and five at World Cup finals.

In a glittering career, Ronaldo helped Portugal win Euro 2016 and has led Real Madrid to the last three Champions League titles. Now the 33-year-old has joined Brazil’s Pele (1958-70), West Germany’s Uwe Seeler (1958-70) and Germany’s Miroslav Klose (2002-14) as the only players to score in four World Cups.

Messi has 64 goals for Argentina and was key to Barca’s Champions League titles in 2009, 2011 and 2015. His 2018 World Cup opens today with a match against Iceland.