Cristiano Ronaldo’s furious five-goal display against Granada, followed by Lionel Messi’s blank in Barcelona’s 1-0 win against Celta Vigo, puts the Portuguese star back on top of the La Liga scoring charts with 36 goals to Messi’s 32.
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And over the next two months, the duel between these two outrageously-talented superstars is sure to attract almost as much attention as the destination of the La Liga trophy itself.
Football fans in Spain attach an enormous amount of importance to the ‘Pichichi’, as the top scorer award is known in honour of Athletic Bilbao legend Rafael Moreno, who went by that nickname and was the first goalscoring hero during the 1910s and early 1920s.
Cristiano Ronaldo: 5 goals hattrick in 8 minutes 299 goals in 287 matches What more can you ask for.. pic.twitter.com/yLOZY4yXNE
— RMadridHome (@RMadridHome) April 6, 2015
The fact that the two contestants for this year’s honour, yet again, are Ronaldo and Messi lends an extra layer of intrigue.
Over the last six years, these two icons have exerted an unbreakable duopoly over the Pichichi, with Messi claiming the crown on three occasions in 2010, 2012 and 2013 and Ronaldo triumphing twice in 2011 and 2014.
The extent of their superiority over their peers is evident from the fact that this year’s nearest challengers, Carlos Bacca of Sevilla and Barca’s Neymar, haven’t even managed half the total of Ronaldo. And with nine games remaining, the possibility of Messi’s all-time single season record of 50 – set three seasons ago – being broken or at least equalled cannot be discounted.
RT @8Fact_Footballl: 2014/15 Ronaldo Games: 41 Goals: 47 Assists: 21 Messi Games: 41 Goals: 43 Assists: 25 pic.twitter.com/UTpeKd6SKw
— Plesbol (@PLESETANBOLA) April 5, 2015
The duo’s scarcely believable goalscoring exploits are the kind of superhuman, comic-book efforts that any football fan should relish, but the strange thing about the Messi/Ronaldo rivalry is the way they bitterly divide opinion.
It is almost as though we are allowed to admire only one of them: you will meet Messi fans and Ronaldo fans, but only rarely will anyone feel capable of admitting that they hold an equal liking for both players.
It never used to be this way. In the 1970s, appreciating the talents of Gerd Muller was no barrier to also drooling over the skills of Johan Cruyff. And 15 years ago, it was quite possible to simultaneously praise both Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldinho without being made to feel foolish. Not so now.
Apparently the only acceptable stance in the current debate over the two greatest in the world – two of the greatest in history, indeed – is to firmly pick one: Ronaldo or Messi…not both.
For die-hard fans of Madrid or Barcelona, there is natural inclination to prefer their team’s man. But even Cules and Madridistas – and certainly the rest of us – should be able to acknowledge that both players deserve to be lauded and recognised for their amazing talents.
The debate is partly fuelled by the fact that Messi and Ronaldo have very different characteristics as players and people. It is normal to be more attracted to one and less to the other, and there’s no problem in regarding one as a personal favourite.
That should not, however, prevent an appreciation of and respect for both players, whose talent and dedication deserves more than heated and occasionally vindictive squabbles over which man is ‘better’.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are both astonishing footballers and whoever comes out on top in this season’s Pichichi, the ‘loser’ will still be a phenomenal player. We would do well to remember that.
