no its actually much larger than i think it is, and i believe the general public has been manipulated into thinking ronaldo is close to messi, while in actuality messi dominated while they played in the same league, he won almost ever el classico they played, and scored more goals head to head.
think of magnus and hikaru, messi being magnus, and hikaru being ronaldo. ronaldo is better at one specific field (ucl trophies and more goals, albeit he has played much more games but whatever), and hikaru is better at speed chess
head to head however, messi is much better (magnus has a better head to head record against hikaru)
and lastly, magnus has more accolades than hikaru, while messi has more accolades than ronaldo
we can see the similarities in the rivalry, and the general chess public affirms that the gap between magnus and hikaru is HUGE
so although they are world number 1 and 2, the gap is much MUCH larger than we think. id argue even neymar is closer to ronaldo than ronaldo is to messi, and id even go to argue that without injury neymar wouldve been a better player than ronaldo, but also prime for prime neymar was better, but thats a different debate altogether.
now remember, i am not discrediting ronaldo. he is one of the greatest to touch the game, its just disrespectful to compare him to the literal football god messi is.
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