Look back at the history of any sport, you will rarely find any duopoly as intense and consistent as the dominance of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. From 2008 till the date of writing of this article these super-footballers have shared a total of 10 World Player titles along with several prestigious accolades that clearly separate these two from the other players of their generation. Undoubtedly these two players have set a bar so high in the game that other players can only think of reaching that level.
Where there is greatness there is glory and where there is glory there will always be followers. On Facebook, these two players are among the two most popular sportsperson. Both of them have redefined the game and beautified it through their deeds on and off the pitch. They have given countless lessons of life to the lovers of the game. But the fact that hurts the integrity of football the most is that there is a divide between its fans and this divide is meaningless. Ronaldo fans swear Messi as a cheat while Messi fans call Ronaldo a dark villain. One set of fans count the accolades of Messi and the other set of fans count the team titles of Ronaldo. Some say that Messi can run into the goal with the ball when Ronaldo can only pray his defenders stop him from doing that, while the others say that even if Messi stands over himself he won’t be able to reach the height of Ronaldo’s majestic leap for headers.
Rivalry is natural, even both these players themselves share a healthy rivalry every season. But there is a thin line between rivalry and hooliganism and that thin line is mutual respect. What infects the spirit of football the most is the fact that Leo and Cris have tremendous mutual respect for each other both on and off the field but their followers sadly don’t have any. The result of this lack of mutual respect is that people don’t realize why they both were sent to Earth. This rivalry becomes just like any other sporting rivalry when it was clearly meant to depict a deeper meaning about life.
Who is Messi? Once a little boy from Rosario, Argentina. A boy who had the kind of natural dribbling skills that allowed him to take on any player regardless of his size. He was unstoppable once he started running. What he had was something that no coach could ever teach any player. He was born with it. He was born to run with a ball at his feet. He was gifted. And the scouting team of FC Barcelona realized this and hastily signed young Messi his first ever contract on a piece of napkin. 17 Years later Messi would repay back that trust to Barcelona by being the most successful player ever to adorn the Catalan shirt. Admired by the ones who actually played the game at the highest level, the kind of control and speed of thought Leo has, it is near impossible for any human to develop it over a span of a lifetime.
Who is Ronaldo? An ambitious, probably outspoken boy from Portugal. A boy with a dream just like many other boys across the world. But this boy had tremendous self-belief backing that dream. A boy who left his family at a young age for playing in Lisbon. Who had no aim other than becoming the best in the World. Who wanted success and glory as bad as he wanted to breathe. Who sacrificed what he was for what he wanted to become. He was probably not as gifted as Leo in terms of ball control or speed of thought. But he knew only one thing, the fact that hard work beats that talent when talent doesn’t work hard. Hard work was his motto. Maybe he didn’t have the natural talent like Lionel, but no one could take away from him whatever he would gain by working more harder than anyone else. He accepted challenges and obstacles, rose from the ranks in Lisbon to Manchester United and now is setting newer records in the royal half of Madrid.
Messi was sent so that atheists of this world understand that whether you choose to accept or not, there are some things in life with a clear divine intervention. Things that will trigger doubts in your atheistic minds that yes there are reasons supernatural, there are sources of energy inhuman, there is some power probably named ‘God’.
Ronaldo came into this world to deny the fact that the will of God is the ultimate will. A man rather than relying on the outcome of circumstances can himself choose to create the outcomes that he needs rather than being bound by circumstances.
So the next time, you compare these two players, always feel privileged that life has existed since the last 3 million years, out of which the beautiful game has been played since the last 150 years and within those 150 years you are lucky to be ‘alive’ when Messi and Ronaldo were both ruling the beautiful game.
Messi came into this world to prove Lord’s existence, and Ronaldo came into this world to prove that if a man decides to write his own fate even God can start sweating. So whoever you are, choose the half of footballing greatness which suits your thinking but remember whether you choose the messenger of God from Argentina or the Superman from Portugal, you must always….
“Love one… and respect the other!!!”
– Already conveyed to the world by the Beautiful Game, just drafted into words by Gagandeep Singh Lall
The Holy Soccrament 