Lionel Messi
A potential move to Al-Hilal would see Lionel Messi reignite his age-old rivalry with Cristiano Ronaldo who plies trade for Al Nassr. Credits: Twitter

Former Atletico Madrid captain and legend Diego Godin has revealed who was tougher to defend against between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Godin spent nine seasons with Atletico between 2010 and 2019, coming up against Messi and Ronaldo quite often both in the La Liga and the Champions League. Moreover, the veteran defender still faces the legendary duo when representing Uruguay.

However, as almost every person in the footballing fraternity has to choose between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, Godin too was posed with the same question. And for a defender, who was regular to embarrassment from the two greats on the pitch, and still has to pull up his socks and clash against them, the answer was never going to be easy. But the Uruguay captain has still explained who’s the bigger threat between the two.

Lionel Messi
Diego Godin has come up against both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo a number of times in his career, but picked one as the toughest. Credits: Twitter

‘More difficult to mark Lionel Messi’ – Godin on defending against the Argentine

Godin had the bad luck of being a defender in the times of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, and furthermore, facing the two in their very prime years between 2010-2019. While the 36-year-old was not always on the losing side, it was only on a rare occasions that he triumphed over them, and managing a clean-sheet as well was just another achievement in all.

Meanwhile, Godin, who now plies his trade for Argentine club Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield, has explained what it took to defend against the deadly duo. He also underlined how Atletico missed out on many titles due to either Messi firing his Barcelona to those, or Ronaldo carrying Real to lift them. Speaking to ESPN, Godin said:

“For me it is more difficult to mark Messi. We are contemporaries. I had the bad luck of coinciding with both of them in Europe. They took several titles from us at Atlético de Madrid. Without Messi at Barcelona or Cristiano at Real Madrid, we would have some more league titles and maybe some Champions League. We managed to compete with the generation of these monsters.

Lionel Messi
Godin named Lionel Messi as the toughest he has had to defend against over Cristiano Ronaldo. Credits: Twitter

“Messi’s talent, with or without spaces, the way a player turns and takes off and the vision of the game to put in a pass is different. Sometimes you don’t get to catch it. There was a time when we hit him and he didn’t fall. Look, we were going to look for him… He would fall and get up, he would only get angry if you were in a bad mood ” .

Truer words were never spoken since Godin only managed to win the La Liga once during his nine-year spell at Atletico in the 13/14 season. He also lost the Champions League final twice to Ronaldo’s Real Madrid, in 2014 and 2016, most heartbreaking of them being the 2014 one since Godin himself had scored in the 36th minute which almost looked like the winner, until Sergio Ramos equalized in the last minute of the game.

Gareth Bale, Marcelo and Ronaldo then added three goals in the extra-time, as it was so close yet so far for Godin and Atletico. The 2016 final too went to penalties, with Ronaldo again scoring the winning spot-kick, breaking Atletico hearts for a second time. However, Godin’s pick was Lionel Messi, who ultimately crowned himself as the ‘GOAT’, with the World Cup win last month in Qatar.