The last two decades of football have been thoroughly dominated by Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, especially as far as winning Ballon d’Or is concerned. While the Portuguese has won the coveted individual award on five occasions, the Argentine has won it a record-breaking eight times.
On Monday, Manchester City and Spain’s midfielder Rodri won the Ballon d’Or and ended Spain’s long wait for the prize. Luis Suarez was the last Spaniard to win the award back in 1960 while playing for Barcelona.
Meanwhile, Messi and Ronaldo are regarded as two of the best players of the current era and have won almost everything in world football.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola feels only Cristiano Ronaldo could beat Lionel Messi.
Pep Guardiola said, “No one could beat Messi, only Cristiano. Cristiano was a monster and the father of the monster is Messi. And both have done something incredible in the last 20 years.”
Guardiola feels Spain’s Andre Iniesta, who recently retired from professional football and Xavi, also deserved to win the Ballon d’Or but could not claim it because of Ronaldo and Messi’s dominance.
“Maybe Xavi and Iniesta deserved it as well. So I think Rodri yesterday got what the Spanish football deserved worldwide,” he further added.
On the other hand, Guardiola also provided an update on midfielder Kevin de Bruyne, who suffered a thigh injury against Inter Milan on September 18.
“I would like to tell you, especially I would like to know it, but I don’t know right now,” Guardiola said when asked when De Bruyne will be back. “He feels that he can train, but not to go to that level that we need in competition. When you kick the ball or something, he still has pain and he doesn’t feel [right]. Kevin has to feel good to express his huge talent that he has. He’s feeling better, but not the best.”
On City’s injury list, Guardiola added: “For sure, if these guys don’t come back as quick as possible, we’ll struggle, because we cannot sustain with just 14, 15 players for the season. We need the players to come back.”
