Dani Carvajal can’t choose between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in the GOAT debate, but admits seeing them on the same team “would have been the bomb”.
The Real Madrid defender spent five years alongside CR7 at the Santiago Bernabéu, between 2013 and 2018. He saw the Portuguese superstar become the top scorer in Los Blancos’ history, while enriching his collection of Ballons d’Or, and regularly clashed with Barcelona legend Messi.
You’d expect Carvajal to side with Ronaldo in the discussion about the best player of all time, given their shared history, but he has too much respect for Messi – who has eight Ballons d’Or to his name. active and is the most decorated player in the history of men’s soccer – to take sides.
” Monsters “
Instead, Carvajal told Daniel Habif: “Messi or Ronaldo? I put them on the same level. I don’t prefer one over the other. They are monsters in every sense of the word and I couldn’t choose one over the other. I think they are very different. Messi is a player who can go back, receive the ball and create attacks, then he can participate in the game and create. Cristiano is a monster when it comes to scoring goals, attacking the box and finishing. If they had played together, it would have been a bomb. And that would have been interesting to see.”
The chances of seeing Messi and Ronaldo in the same team, at least in a competitive context, seem to have disappeared. Argentine icon Messi now plays in MLS with Inter Miami, while Ronaldo has helped raise the profile of the Saudi Pro League following his splashy move to Al-Nassr in 2023.
