FC Barcelona and Brazilian international right-back Dani Alves stated that he considers his club mate Lionel Messi as a better player than Cristiano Ronaldo because of Messi’s better influence in matches.
This has now become an everlasting debate as to who is a better player among the two stalwarts of the modern day football.
Alves opined: “Messi is much better than Cristiano Ronaldo. Messi has an influence on the play and Cristiano doesn’t. See if he has an influence on play beyond scoring goals and appearing in certain moves.
“Messi is influential, he plays and assists. Messi has a divine gift. Cristiano works hard. We have our battles, but I admire him. He is a guy with great dedication and he’s competitive.
“Ronaldo has things that I don’t admire because I play for the team. I think that my team is more important than me. I think he cares little for what really matters, which is the collective side of the game.
“So much so that some criticised us during the celebration of titles while he celebrated the league top goalscorer award.”
Alves insisted that Ronaldo concentrates more on personal glory than thinking about the team as a whole.
He further spoke about the tiff that happened between Lionel Messi and manager Luis Enrique during January after match against Real Sociedad. He clarified that such things are normal in football and should not be highlighted. Barcelona eventually had won treble under the Spanish manager and Messi too had an excellent season.
“Fights sometimes occur due to wanting to improve”, Alves continued, “Of course the anger existed, but it was about competing. Everything started during a match in a training session due to the interpretation of an action.
“It was a move that the coach interpreted in one way and Messi in another. Messi is very competitive and never wants to lose and his team lost and the discussion grew.
“Each one has a way of being, but we all have the same objective. Besides, fights even occur in the best families.”
Alves signed contract extension after much speculation at the end of the season. He admitted that he was in a dilemma over the contract renewal issue but later opted to continue with the Catalan giants.
“I could have signed a pre-contract with another team, but I refused,” he added. “I decided to be honest to the end and focus 100 per cent on doing a great job.”