Messi vs Ronaldo: Updated Edition (Luca Caioli)

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The two players both missing out on a World Cup win, unless either wins in 2022 is also noted and discussed. But at least it’s a worthwhile read. Written by a pair of Wall Street Journal reporters, Messi vs Ronaldo mercifully refrains from systematically going through their two careers season by season in a blur of goals and records. Instead, the emphasis is on the personal, drawing heavily on interviews with individuals who had ringside seats for both players’ rise to the top. The American perspectives of the authors are sometimes too noticeable – Walter Smith is referred to merely as “one of Ferguson’s assistant coaches from outside Glasgow”, Clive Tyldesley described as “an announcer” – but the writing is strong and detailed overall.

Reading this book felt like a very good primer for someone like me - a person just getting into soccer and wanting to know more about it. I learned a great deal from it, and while I doubt that their army of fans would discover anything new, I would imagine this is one of the first times that all this information has been collected into one specific book. I could very well be wrong about that. The World Cup final is here. For a sports fan this past month has been a dream. I struggle when baseball season ends and the NFL is primarily one day a week. This month, I have been watching the football of the rest of the world for the past month and bonding with my husband and son, who are fanatics, in the process. Even I know Messi and Ronaldo, how could I not, so I wanted to get this book read in time for the final game, which is starting as I write. I had been on Team Ronaldo for most of the month until his nation got eliminated. Usually I am on Team Ronaldo only because in his broken English he encouraged “another Goat” to stay out of retirement. That aside, my husband has always rooted for Brazil, so by default I would not root for Argentina, and that has kept me off of Team Messi. For today, I have joined Team Messi, only because he has said that he is done with international competitions after this World Cup, and it is always a moving moment when an athlete goes out on top. Wall Street Journal reporters Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg offer a deeply reported account of the intertwined sagas and legacies of two of the greatest soccer players of all time—Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo—examining how their rivalry has grown from a personal competition to a multi-billion-dollar industry, paralleling the stunning rise, overwhelming excesses, and uncertain future of modern international soccer.In this well-written account, you will learn about the men, but also things that shoot through the myths associated with them. I always figured Ronaldo arrogant and selfish, and he is, but he was also far more instrumental for Portugal in their 2016 European Championship. Even when he got subbed out after 20 mins due to injury, his leadership on the sideline was actually critical, as he amplified the coach’s directions (the manager having lost his voice). He was a real team leader, not just for his stellar play, but actually leading the team. Messi, while seen as less self-centered, can be just as arrogant and cutting. He is perhaps one of the best trash-talkers out there (a side he usually keeps contained, but did come out in the past World Cup against the Dutch). The amount of profligate spenders who’ve infiltrated the game (mainly Middle Eastern and Chinese actors) seems like a huge net negative on the sport. Not only have they bid up prices on assets to crazy levels but they also are not at all motivated to break even, so they’re skewing the very laissez-faire business to a race to the bottom. Seems like the era of homegrown talent is out and so many of these huge signings don’t pan out. After finishing the epilogue, I saw that Argentina beat Croatia in the World Cup semifinal to advance to the final. I wonder if the authors would tweak the epilogue in hindsight.

Messi and Ronaldo have become such an omnipresent part of sports that I knew who they were even before I started getting into soccer in the last year. I hadn't seen them play, I didn't know their statistics, but I knew that they were good, and possibly the greatest of all time. As I got into soccer and started spending some time doing research about the game, I discovered just how good the two players were, and how much they dominated their sport. The book is in three sections, Two Geniuses, Greatest(s) of All Time and Twilight of the Gods. In the first the rise of the two players is chronicled. In the second their time in La Liga together is described. Finally in Twilight of the Gods the aging of the two masters and them leaving La Liga is covered.With the 2022 World Cup almost certain to be the last for both of these figures, Messi vs. Ronaldo offers a deeply researched look at their legacy and grapples with the impact that their talents have had on the game for better and for worse. Much more than a retelling of the dual accomplishments of these great players, this is truly a biography of a rivalry, one that has become a crucial lens for understanding the past, present, and future of global soccer.