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Former Real Madrid and Manchester United great Cristiano Ronaldo has been described as being many things throughout his career. Being humble, however, is not one of those things.
Since his final Champions League win with Madrid in 2018, Ronaldo went through largely unsuccessful stints with Juventus and Manchester United before now finding himself enjoying a highly lucrative pseudo retirement in Saudi Arabia.
Despite this, however, while Ronaldo no longer possesses the skills that he did a half-decade-or-so ago, the infamous ego remains, as evidenced by his reaction to his longtime rival Lionel Messi winning his record-extending eighth Ballon d’Or.
In a comment on Instagram, which I confirmed is real with my own eyes by looking it up, Ronaldo reacted as a teenager would be leaving laughing emojis on a post detailing Messi’s win.
This led football fans to point out how different Ronaldo’s response was from that of Messi’s — Messi, by the way, now has eight Ballon d’Ors (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019, 2021, 2023) while Ronaldo has five.
The difference between Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
You can’t always buy class… pic.twitter.com/SV5tGFk9S1
— george (@StokeyyG2) October 31, 2023
While Messi’s stats with PSG last season were predictably excellent — 21 goals and 20 assists across all competitions — it was his World Cup win with Argentina less than 12 months ago that propelled him to the historic eighth Ballon d’Or win over Manchester City and Norway striker Erling Haaland, who has yet to play in a major international competition with Norway.
Messi led Argentina to the 2022 World Cup title in Qatar, the nation’s first since the days of the late Diego Maradona in 1986. In their seven World Cup games, including the instant classic of the final against France, Messi had seven goals and three assists.
Following Messi and Haaland, Kylian Mbappe, Kevin De Bruyne, and Rodri rounded out the top five of the 2023 Ballon d’Or rankings.
Earlier in the year, Messi made the move from Paris Saint-Germain in France’s Ligue 1 over to Inter Miami in Major League Soccer.