Barcelona star Leo Messi has said there is no big rivalry between him and Real Madrid striker Cristiano Ronaldo and that reports they don’t get on are made up by the media.
The pair have been the two outstanding players in world football in recent years sharing all sorts of goalscoring records, winning endless amounts of trophies and picking up plenty of individual awards along the way.
If the media is to be believed, Messi and Ronaldo are both obsessed with getting one up over the other and beating whatever achievement the other one has done.
But in an interview with Sport List, the Argentina striker, now on international duty at the Copa America, said there is no intense rivalry.
“There’s no rivalry, it’s something invented by the media. It’s not Messi vs Ronaldo, it never has been. And regarding Barca I’ve said: ‘Barcelona has given me everything, they gave me the opportunity when no one else would. I’ve never had any desire to play anywhere else and I’ll be here as long as they want me,” he stated.
Asked about what his career would have been like had he chosen Arsenal over Barcelona as a youth player, he said it’s something he’ll never know but admitted the Premier League is one of the best in the world.
“It’s difficult to say how things could’ve gone because the education I’d have had would’ve been different than the one I had in Barcelona, but it’s obvious that it’s one of the most competitive leagues in Europe.”
