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For more than a decade Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have been at the center of a fierce and largely 💸 unsettled debate over who is the greatest player in soccer history. A decade from now, they might still be part of 💸 that debate. Only the question then may be more like “who were those two guys who came before Kylian Mbappe 💸 and Erling Haaland?” That might sound like a bit of a stretch, but consider the evidence. Ronaldo, 38, and Messi, 36, rewrote 💸 the record books, redefined greatness and took the sport to new plateaus. Soccer is more popular, more profitable and better-played 💸 than at any point in its history, and Ronaldo and Messi, who defined an era if not an entire sport, 💸 are big reasons why. Playing much of their careers against one another in Spain’s La Liga — Messi for Barcelona and 💸 Ronaldo for Real Madrid — they pushed one another, combining for 19 league championships, four Champions League titles and 13 💸 Ballon d’Or awards, achieving levels of greatness together neither could have reached alone. |