Messi or Ronaldo? More than 100 footballers give their answer

A social media post has compiled responses from more than one hundred footballers in a bid to determine who is the better player out of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

For more than a decade the pair have been recognised as the two defining players of the modern era, consistently vying for the biggest individual honours in the sport.

With both players having a host of accolades to choose from, the debate as to who is superior has raged on throughout the years.

Ronaldo became the first of the pair to collect a major international trophy as he led Portugal to victory at Euro 2016, but Messi has since equalled that distinction with Argentina's 2021 Copa America triumph and surpassed it by winning the World Cup the following year.

The 11 minutes long compilation includes responses from ex-teammates of both Messi and Ronaldo and features some of the greatest players and managers the game has to offer.

However, when the answers are tallied up the results are not particularly close...

Of the more than 140 respondents included in the compilation, 101 indicated that Messi is the superior player with only 40 picking the former Real Madrid star.

Some of the notable names to side with Ronaldo include Giorgio Chiellini, Marcus Rashford, Iker Casillas and Gianluigi Buffon.

Meanwhile the list of those to opt for the Argentine included Jude Bellingham, Kevin De Bruyne, Franz Beckenbauer and Ronaldinho.

Asked about their sporting rivalry in 2019, Ronaldo insisted that the competition has spurred both of them on to greater heights.

'I have no doubt that Messi has made me a better player and vice-versa,' he told Portuguese channel TV1.

'When I am winning trophies it must sting him and it's the same for me when he wins.

'I really admire the career he [Messi] has had and from his side, he has already talked of the disappointment when I left Spain because it was a rivalry that he appreciated.

'It's a good rivalry but it's not unique - Michael Jordan had rivalries in basketball, there was Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in Formula 1. The thing they all had in common is that they were healthy rivalries.'