Cristiano Ronaldo
Age : 30
Position : Forward
Nationality : Portuguese
Clubs : 3
Career Appearances : 624
Career goals : 436
International Appearances : 120
International Goals : 55
Cristiano Ronaldo may have had to give playing football as when he was 15 years old, he was diagnosed with a racing heart. Luckily the operation, in which a laser was used to cauterise the area of his heart which was causing the problem, was a success and a young Ronaldo returned to training just a few days later. Ronaldo was linked with a number of clubs, however in the Summer of 2003, Ronaldo caught the attention of the great Sir Alex Ferguson when United suffered a 3-1 defeat to Sporting Lisbon. It is reported that the United players were so impressed with Ronaldo's performance that they urged the manager to sign him and before the 2003-04 season began, he became Manchester United's first ever Portuguese player when he signed for £12.24million. At Manchester United, Ronaldo caught the eye of every player, pundit, fan and manager as he improved season after season. During his time at the Red Devils, the Portuguese forward scored 118 goals in 292 appearances. His partnership with Wayne Rooney was incredible and as a pairing, they helped lead Manchester United to : 3 Premier Leagues, 2 League Cups and the FA Cup, Champions League, Community Shield and the Club World Cup on one occasion. For me personally, Ronaldo was a joy to watch in the Premier League and it was a shame to see him depart United (although it wasn't a shame when you're an Arsenal fan). One thing I despised about Ronaldo when he was at United was his diving, especially when he dived in cup matches against lower tier sides, it wasn't needed and I'm glad he's now cut it out of his game to a certain extent. He moved to Real Madrid for a record fee of £80million. Since joining Real Madrid, Ronaldo has been on phenomenal form every year as he's scored 313 goals in 301 appearances. That is an absolutely outstanding record. Ronaldo has the pace and strength to take on any full back and centre back and he is determined to score goals in every single game. He's arguably the best free-kick taker in the world and you'd bet on him to score almost every one he takes. However one thing Ronaldo needs to work on is his teamwork, he needs to realise that he's not the only player at Real Madrid so if someone else scores, he should encourage them. He needs to realise he's at the age now where the young player's coming into the first team at Real Madrid aspire to be like him so he has to be a good role model and the best thing that he can do is improve his teamwork. If he does this, there's no reason he can't win his 4th Ballon d'Or.
Lionel Messi
Age : 28
Position : Forward
Nationality : Argentinian
Clubs : 1
Career Appearances : 518
Career Goals : 426
International Appearances : 103
International Goals : 46
Similar to Ronaldo, Messi may have never been able to play football due to clubs refusing to pay his medical bills after he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency at an age of 11. Fortunately for Messi, Barcelona were willing to pay his medical fees on the condition that Messi moved to Spain. He accepted the condition and he and his dad made the move to live in Spain. The magical forward moved his way through the ranks at Barcelona and made his debut for the first team on September 27th against Udinese in the Champions League. The season later, Messi established himself as a first team player as he scored 14 goals in 26 appearance the tricky little Argentinian only got better as he's notched up 415 goals in 486 appearances. He's been repeatedly played through the middle for Barcelona in the 4-3-3 formation and has been able to link up with every single player he's played with. Henry, Ronaldinho, Eto'o, Pedro, David Villa and more recently Neymar and Suarez have had the pleasure and reaped the rewards of playing with one of the most clinical yet unselfish players to have ever graced the beautiful game. The most impressive thing about Messi is that although he can score from anywhere and take on every player without even looking at the ball, it's as though the ball is glued to his feet as his ball control is on another level, but the most impressive thing about Messi is that he's always looking for his team mates and this is proven as he has achieved more than 10 assists in his last 8 seasons. This is the swinging factor in making him better than Cristiano Ronaldo as Messi plays for his team whereas Ronaldo plays for himself. He's had an incredible career winning 52 Individual awards including 4 Ballon D'or and and 6 different team awards including 4 Champions League. He is a magical player capable of scoring goals out of nothing which is a key feature of the World's best player and in my opinion, Magical Messi is the best player to have ever graced the beautiful game.
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