Messi desperate to beat Ronaldo – Carragher

Former Liverpool star Jamie Carragher has said that Lionel Messi was desperate to beat Cristiano Ronaldo for important awards.

Messi’s and Ronaldo’s achievements in football would be nearly impossible for any other player to reach.

They made it almost impossible for any other player to become the best in the world for more than a decade.

Ronaldo left Manchester United for Real Madrid, where he directly faced Lionel Messi at Barcelona.

Carragher, in an interview with Football365, revealed that Messi was desperate to beat Ronaldo for important awards.

“People think of it more from a Ronaldo point of view that he was all about himself, but I still think Messi was desperate for those Ballons d’Or as well and to beat Ronaldo, no doubt about it,” he said.

“You have fans around the world now who support players, rather than clubs. You look at the social media numbers—players are sometimes bigger than clubs; certainly those two.

“It’s the first thing anyone speaks about when they sign for a club—the social media for the club has gone through the roof, and the sales of memorabilia and shirts have gone up. When he was at Man United, it almost felt as if Ronaldo was bigger than the club in some ways.”