With Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo about to embark on contrasting beginnings this new season, old comments said by Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United’s former manager, have resurfaced.
Commenting back in 2015, the legendary coach expressed his thoughts about Messi’s incapacity to emulate his form in Barcelona at any other club, whilst concurrently expressing that his former player Ronaldo to perform his best at any level.
Both the legendary players went through some high-profile changes over the summer. While Ronaldo returned to his former club, Manchester United, Messi signed up to join the French giants PSG once Barcelona failed to strike up a new deal with him.
Ronaldo has been on a scoring streak since his return to England. The 36-year-old scored four times out of the three appearances so far in favor of the Red Devils.
Ironically, Messi has been struggling to score even once while at the Parc des Princes – which is why Ferguson’s old commentary about the pair is seeing the day of light after so many years.
The clip where Sir Alex makes the aforementioned comment has been making rounds on social media indefinitely just after Messi’s underwhelming performance at his debut donning the PSG jersey earlier this month.
Ferguson, while striking up a conversation with snooker legend John Parrott, supposedly claimed that Ronaldo will always be able to score goals just like he does irrespective of his team or club.
He stated in April 2015: “People say who is the best player in the world? And plenty of people quite rightly say Messi – you can’t dispute that opinion,”.
“But Ronaldo could play for Queens Park Rangers, Doncaster Rovers, Millwall… anyone, and score a hat-trick in a game. I’m not sure Messi could do it.”
While his words do hold so far, it is still too early to say at the beginning of the session. It is quite improbable to be able to draw solid conclusions about the success the two legends will earn in their new hopeful ventures.
In the case of Messi, he is still expected to bag his seventh Ballon d’Or this year, despite his slow start for the 2021/22 campaign.
However, if Ronaldo continues on his successful streak for Manchester, Messi will surely be under pressure to respond to it.
