ronaldo 1996/97 vs messi 2009/10

Ronaldo's legendary first season vs te season when messi went from best player on earth to playing iike an alien. Ronaldo's season was before my time, but I remember watching messi week in and week out. Simply put he was like nothing I'd ever ever seen. Much more explosive than even now n that he would beat several from a standstill regularly, and every time he to the ball you would anticipate something crazy happening. There was a particular stretch during the 2nd half of the eason where he scored like 3 hattricks and a row which got pundts labelling him the goat at 22. This question goes to the people that saw both of these players regularly.Was ronaldo even better than messi in this time period?

Messi during 08-09 that Clasico that ended 6-2 where Messi went from best player in the world to a different stratosphere all together.

I couldn't believe what I was watching. He was out of this world.

It was Ronaldo for me. It was pure fantasy and plain ruthless wizardry. Here, he was 19 and was already being compared to pele. He is the only striker i ever saw that had the tecnique and dribbling ability of a footballing god that was mixed with pure fantasy and brutal effectiveness. I even remember ibrahimovic saying that there was a 10 sec span in a game vs ac milan in 07 where he just stood carried away, looking at ronaldo (and this was a finished ronaldo) imagining what it must have being like playing against him in his pomp. His style of play appealed to my inner soul tbh. He along with maradona are the best players i ever saw in their prime. Whoever chooses messi wouldnt be wrong either afterall, we're talking bout possibly the greatest player of all time. Its just that messis style of play while beign maybe the most effective of all time, just bores the adrenaline out of me. I feel absolutely no emotion whatsoever when i watch him play. Unlike when i watch guys like El fenomeno, zidane and dinho.

For me it's Ronaldo, he was (still is really) my favorite player, but Messi has had better career if we count only clubs, Ronaldo has a better NT career, he won 2 WC and was for a short time that all time scorer of the WC,

I see Ronaldo as a mix of Cristiano and Messi, Ronaldo had the technique of Messi and the Speed, acceleration, Strength that Cristiano once had, although Ronaldo maintained that level for what 2 0r 3 years, Messi has done it for what 10 years?

That Ronaldo.
Ronaldo '96-'98 wins on everyone.

Pre-injury Ronaldo > anyone at anytime imo. Infact he was so good that at 22, he was done with NT football aside world cups by 1999. Hell, he played his last non world cup related tournament in 99 at 22

After winning and ending the copa america as top scorer again in 99, there were rumors that he told the cbf to exclude him from all non world cup related tournaments, lol, just before his injury. Then after returning from injury and winning the world cup and top scorer awards in 02, he came out publicly to request that he be excluded from other NT tournaments and it was done yet Ronaldo was even barely 25 then infact at 22, his resume was like this for the NT.
Copa america 97 and 99,
Confederations cup 97,
World cup mvp 98, World cup runner up 98,
copa america mvp 97,
copa america top scorer 99,
confederations cup mvp 97,
confederations cup final hattrick 97,
copa america final double 99. At 22, before the injury. Let that sink in

Ronaldo's style of dribbling was fantastic to watch but it didnt work every game. Messi's style of dribbling works every time, because he doesnt use tricks, he uses his body. Tricks are called tricks for a reason. So Messi's dribbling was boring to watch but more efficent, this is why he dribbles 5 players, R9 probably never dribbled 5 players. because he its very hard to use tricks against 5 players in a row, tricks work once, twice then a crash.... but you can use body feints as much as you can (if you are messi)

Dribbling aside, If you put both of them in the same team messi would outperform ronaldo by his creativity and playmaking abilities and would be team's nominee for Ballon Dor.

Messi was equal dribbler and scorer, only thing ronaldo had an edge was burst of speed. Messi also was super fast in young ages.

For me no player can outperform Messi in the same team, because no player every had both playmaking and scoring at the goat level, when one doesnt work he uses another one. with this way he is always team's best performer, you simply cant outperform him if you play alongside with him

He destroyed Thuram , Cannavaro , Maldini , Nesta etc in ' 97-'98
R10 > R9 imo.

Robespierre wrote:He destroyed Thuram , Cannavaro , Maldini , Nesta etc in ' 97-'98
R10 > R9 imo.

Lol, true that. El fenomeno so destroyed Nesta and maldini that Nesta say he still feels cringe worthy anytime he watched clips of lazio v inter and Maldini said Ronaldo alongside maradona were the 2 hardest opponents he ever faced in his career. Gattuso said in a documentary that he lost motivation any morning before the inter games thuram and cannavaro were other favourite victims. Wondered why he wore the number 10 shirt initially, but oh boy.. the guy played 10 like no other i ever saw. He wasn't a pure 9, hell, he wasn't even playing second striker as he would go so deep every game. Infact he would start as a second striker and end up as a 10 in the game. So, yes R10 (inter) > R9 (barca) as impossible as that sounds.