Manchester City defender and legendary captain, Vincent Kompany gave his thoughts on Lionel Messi vs Cristiano Ronaldo debate and also gave his words on the most difficult player to play against and defend against. Anderlecht player has played against both on numerous occasions when they are considered as greats of the game.
Its a fact that Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have dominated the game for a long time. They have won 11 of 12 Ballon d’Ors between them.
Both the footballing legends are regulars on the score sheet for their respective clubs and countries. Cristiano Ronaldo has continued his impressive form for Juventus whereas Lionel Messi has been a constant figure for Barcelona. However, Vincent Kompany opined that it was Argentina international who was a major threat for the Vincent Kompany and posed several problems for the defender.
When asked by reporter William Hill who is the hardest player to play against, Kompany said:
“I love Ronaldo and I love all of the things he stands for but I have to go for Messi.“Just the speed of execution… it’s talent and I think talent is difficult to overcome when it’s that good.
But I love Ronaldo because I’ve seen his progression. I’ve seen him being a player that he was at United and progressed to being so driven and then going to a different way of playing.
“The way he plays now at Juventus is different to the way he played when he was at United, different to how he played when he was at Real Madrid.
“I love that in a player but Messi is special.”
Cristiano Ronaldo left Los Blancos in 2018 to join the Bianconeri side and recently gave his opinion on the intriguing battle between them.
“A lot of people said that we fed each other, that being together in Spain made us better,”
“That’s certainly true, I felt his presence more in Madrid than in Manchester. It was a healthy rivalry.
“We were the symbols of our clubs. I think he said recently that he missed me on a competitive level.”
On the other hand, Lionel Messi said:
“It was nice to play against Cristiano, he made Madrid a stronger side.
“I said at the beginning of the season that Madrid would miss him, as any team would.
“It made a lot of Madrid fans a bit angry but that is the reality, any team would miss him.
“He scores 50 goals a season and he was the key player for them, of course they were going to miss that.”