{"id":365751,"date":"2025-08-22T22:39:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T22:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/365751\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T22:39:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T22:39:12","slug":"germany-legend-mls-star-thomas-muller-explains-why-lionel-messi-stands-apart-from-cristiano-ronaldo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/365751\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany legend, MLS star Thomas Muller explains why Lionel Messi stands apart from Cristiano Ronaldo"},"content":{"rendered":"

The debate over who is the greatest soccer player of all time, Lionel Messi<\/strong><\/a> or Cristiano Ronaldo<\/strong>, has raged for nearly two decades. Now, with both legends in the twilight of their careers, the conversation is more intense than ever. And from his new home in MLS<\/strong>, Germany icon <\/strong>Thomas Muller<\/strong><\/a> has made it clear where he stands: Messi has the edge over Ronaldo<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

After more than 20 years at Bayern Munich, spanning his youth career and first-team success, Muller has joined the Vancouver Whitecaps to close out his career<\/strong>. Having faced both Messi and Ronaldo countless times at the highest level in Europe, the German star finally offered his definitive take on the debate.<\/p>\n

Speaking with MLS<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s official channel, Muller was asked about his past battles with Messi. Instead of focusing only on tactics, he gave a candid answer: \u201cIn the end I don\u2019t know how it worked so well. We had big defeats against Barcelona, in 2015 when they won the Champions League that was one of them, but in the end I don\u2019t know how we did it. But to be honest, for me, Messi is the greatest player we\u2019ve ever had in this sport<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Muller has faced Messi 10 times across his career, with famous wins such as Germany<\/a>\u2019s triumphs at the 2010 and 2014 World Cups<\/strong> and Bayern\u2019s historic 8\u20132 thrashing of Barcelona<\/strong>. Despite holding the upper hand in their head-to-head record, M\u00fcller still declared the Argentine the winner in the GOAT conversation.<\/p>\n

\"\" Thomas Muller of FC Bayern Munich and Lionel Messi of Paris Saint-Germain during the UEFA Champions League round of 16 leg. <\/p>\n

When speaking directly about the rivalry with Ronaldo, M\u00fcller acknowledged both legends but pointed out a key difference. \u201cWe always have this Cristiano (Ronaldo)<\/strong><\/a> and Messi discussion, but they both are crazy<\/strong>. Yeah, but Messi was a little bit more elegant,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

A change of heart for Muller <\/p>\n

Just a year ago, Muller admitted that Ronaldo was Bayern Munich\u2019s biggest nemesis<\/strong>, as Real Madrid consistently came out on top against the German giants in Europe. In contrast, Muller himself holds a strong record over Messi, with seven wins compared to just three for the Argentine across club and international matches.<\/p>\n

Despite this situation, Muller admitted that his view has shifted over time: \u201cI think in my first 10 years as a professional player, I always went for Cristiano<\/strong>, if there\u2019s the GOAT debate. But now I\u2019m a little bit older, a little bit more romantic, and I go more for the style than only for the performance, the work ethic, and so on and so on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The German also admitted that Messi\u2019s 2022 World Cup triumph tipped the scales. \u201cAnd after Messi won the World Cup with Argentina, I go for him<\/strong>\u2026 But, I will hunt you again,\u201d Muller joked, as one of Messi\u2019s old foes now shares the MLS stage with him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The debate over who is the greatest soccer player of all time, Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[4116,2000,299,1824,2746,12283,25637],"class_list":{"0":"post-365751","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-cristiano-ronaldo","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-germany","12":"tag-lionel-messi","13":"tag-mls","14":"tag-thomas-muller"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115074823884369249","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}