Former Atletico Madrid defender Diego Godin has named his pick between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as the tougher player to defend against. Godin spent nine years with Atletico between 2010 and 2019, facing Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo several times in La Liga and the Champions League.
The central defender was recently asked who, according to him, is the tougher to defend against between the two superstars of the modern game. In reply, the Uruguayan named Messi.
He also highlighted how the presence of the Argentine and Ronaldo at Barcelona and Real Madrid respectively stopped his team from winning more La Liga titles and the Champions League as well.
“For me it is more difficult to mark Messi. We are contemporaries. All my time in Europe I had the bad luck of coinciding with both of them. They took several titles from us at Atlético de Madrid. Without Messi at Barcelona or Cristiano at Real Madrid we would have some league safer and maybe some Champions League. We managed to compete with the generation of these monsters,” Godin said on ESPN Uruguay.
Notably, Godin won La Liga once in the 2013/14 season with Atletico and two Europa League titles. Atletico were twice stopped by Real Madrid in the final of the Champions League.
Lionel Messi ended the GOAT debate by winning FIFA World Cup 2022
Heading into the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar, the Messi vs Ronaldo debate was the hot topic of discussion. Both players were supposedly making their last appearance in the football extravaganza and were eager to have their hands on the coveted trophy for the first time. Both Argentina and Portugal had strong teams, capable of winning the ultimate football prize.
As it turned out, Argentina went on to win the tournament, defeating defending champions France in the final in the penalty shootout. Lionel Messi was awarded the ‘Golden ball’ as he was named the Player of the Tournament for scoring seven goals and providing three assists.
Cristiano Ronaldo, on the other hand, was benched just two matches into the competition by Portugal’s head coach Fernando Santos. He continued to make substitute appearances as Portugal reached the quarterfinals where they were knocked out by Morocco.
