Gary Lineker has never shied away from backing Argentine superstar Lionel Messi over Cristiano Ronaldo when it comes to debate as to who’s the better of the two.
Having admitted his admiration for the Portuguese, the former Barcelona man believes that Messi is far better even though people are entitled to their opinion.
“People get very tribal in all sorts of ways in life, and Messi versus Ronaldo is one of them,” the former England striker told BBC Sport.
“Often the choice seems to come down to whether you support Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus or whoever, which is fine – I understand that.
“I am a huge fan of Ronaldo too, but if you’re talking about the best player ever, there shouldn’t even be a debate that it is Messi. That’s just my opinion, but it’s not even close for me.”
Lineker also touched on the argument about Messi not switching teams which is often made to discredit the achievements of the Argentine but the Englishman has rubbished such notions.
He added: “Messi has obviously played in some great teams during his time there but, whoever has been alongside him, his amazing numbers have carried on exactly the same.
“He has proved the doubters wrong, time and time again.
“Even for the past couple of seasons, when the Barca team has not been anything like as strong as it was in the past, his contribution has not dipped. In fact, they have been a real mess without him.
“It’s rare for any player to stay with one club now, in the way Messi has with Barcelona, let alone someone who moved there from a different country like he did when he left Argentina for Spain, aged 13.
“But, if he had left for any reason, Messi would have been accused of being disloyal. He cannot win, basically.
“And why would he want to move anyway? He started with one of the greatest clubs in world football.
“Leave Barca and you only move sideways at best. You are never going to move up.”
