Cristiano Ronaldo's response after former Barcelona star claims he was forced to say Lionel Messi was better

Cristiano Ronaldo has had his say after a former Barcelona player came clean about a lie he told in his first Nou Camp press conference.

The rivalry between Ronaldo and Lionel Messi is at the heart of one of football's most tedious debates and World Cup 2026, mercifully, puts us on the home straight.

Messi is the younger of the two and will turn 39 during the tournament, but, for now, any mention of either of them on the internet still inspires a bottomless pit of vacuous commentary.

It's marginally more interesting to hear some insight from players who've actually shared a dressing room with one of the players, who share 13 Ballon d'Or awards between them and whose personal competition peaked when Ronaldo played for Real Madrid and directly played against Barcelona and Messi in La Liga.

Former Premier League star Kevin-Prince Boateng joined Barcelona on loan from Sassuolo in 2019, making four league appearances.

The Ghana international revealed in an interview that his admiration for Ronaldo led to a problem when he joined the Blaugrana.

"I always said I wanted to play for Real Madrid," said Boateng on an episode of the Unscripted podcast.

"I had to lie in a press conference because prior to that, two years before when I played in Las Palmas, they asked me who my favourite player was and I said Cristiano Ronaldo and I said my favourite team was Real Madrid!

"Signing for Barcelona, they said to me ‘your favourite team is Barcelona and your favourite player, the best player in the world is Lionel Messi’. They said ‘you have to otherwise you can’t play here, it is impossible.’

"And I know it happened to other players as well. And I sat there at the press conference, the first question was 'Who's the best player in the world?' and I said ‘Lionel Messi.’

"I openly lied."

Cristiano Ronaldo reacts

The Unscripted clip has re-emerged uncredited on Instagram, where it caught the eye of one of the players in question.

Among the 29,800+ comments on the borrowed video, which also has more than 403,000 likes, five-time Ballon d'Or winner Ronaldo showed up to give his reaction.

Portugal's captain posted some laughing emojis – you know the one – and stepped back while a megaton of likes were dropped on his comment.

Ronaldo will lead Portugal against DR Congo in their first match of World Cup 2026 after his suspension for a red card was itself suspended by a FIFA ruling.