Lionel Messi has hit back at Cristiano Ronaldo after he made a controversial comment playing down winning the World Cup.
The five-time Ballon d'Or winner's career has been parallel to Messi, with the two sharing the stage at the very top of world football for more than 15 years and changing the game with their incredible achievements.
The debate about who is the greatest continues to rumble on even with the two no longer playing in Europe, with 40-year-old Ronaldo still scoring goals aplenty with Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia and Messi tearing it up with Inter Miami in the MLS at the age of 38.
In the eyes of many, the discussion was firmly put to bed in 2022 when Messi finally got his hands on the World Cup trophy - scoring twice as Argentina bested France in a pulsating penalty shoot-out victory after a 3-3 draw.
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Ronaldo has tasted silverware on the international stage with a 2016 European Championship win and two UEFA Nations League triumphs - the latest of which came last summer.
But he has never won the World Cup and after suffering elimination at the hands of Morocco in the quarter final, Ronaldo was reduced to tears as he walked down the tunnel.
In an emotional message posted afterwards on Instagram, Ronaldo said that "winning a World Cup for Portugal was the biggest and most ambitious dream of my career".
However, in an new interview with Piers Morgan Uncensored, Ronaldo changed his tune by claiming that his career is not defined by winning the biggest prize in football.
In a teaser clip for the second half of the interview prior to its Thursday release, Ronaldo said: “If you ask me, Cristiano, is it a dream to win the World Cup? No, it's not a dream. To define if I'm one of the best of the history, to win one competition, [of] six games, seven games. You think it's fair?”
Messi, however, has a very different view and described becoming a world champion as "the ultimate achievement" and something that felt like he was "closing out my entire career" after previous heartbreak on the big stage.
During an appearance at the America Business Forum in Florida, Messi said: "The truth is that explaining the feelings of that moment is difficult. It's hard to put into words what that title meant, on a personal level, on a family level, for my team-mates, and for the country. It was clear how the country celebrated, the need and the desire we had for it to happen again after so much time had passed.”
He added: "For me it was special. First, because for a player, winning the World Cup is the ultimate achievement. It's like anyone in their job, any professional reaching the top. There's nothing more after the World Cup. You can't ask for anything more. And on top of that, I had been lucky enough to have achieved everything before. At the club level, at the individual level. "We had also won the Copa América with the national team. That was the missing piece. It was like closing out my entire career with that trophy.”
In the first half of the chat, Ronaldo made it clear that although he has huge respect for his rival, he believes there are no doubts that he is the best player in history, stating, "Is Messi better than me? I don't agree with that opinion. I don't want to be humble".
Both titans of world football could still appear at another World Cup, having confirmed their intentions of playing at next year's showpiece in North America.
Topics: Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, FIFA World Cup, Football World Cup
Josh Lawless