{"id":899026,"date":"2026-04-16T23:55:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T23:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/899026\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T23:55:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T23:55:12","slug":"cristiano-ronaldo-reacted-poorly-to-goat-snub-in-messi-debate-says-england-legend-lineker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/899026\/","title":{"rendered":"Cristiano Ronaldo reacted poorly to GOAT snub in Messi debate, says England legend Lineker"},"content":{"rendered":"

The debate between Lionel Messi<\/a><\/strong> and Cristiano Ronaldo<\/strong> to determine the best player of this era\u2014and arguably of all time\u2014has lasted for more than a decade. Fans around the world, as well as numerous experts, have shared their opinions, including England <\/strong>legend Gary Lineker.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t like me very much, Cristiano Ronaldo,<\/strong>\u201d Lineker<\/a><\/strong> admitted during a recent appearance on The Rest Is Football podcast. \u201cI didn\u2019t upset him by anything I said about him, other than the fact I\u2019m honest and think overall Messi\u2019s a better footballer.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The former England forward, who was the top scorer at the 1986 FIFA World Cup,<\/strong> has always expressed his admiration for Messi, whom he has often placed at the top of the sport alongside another Argentina <\/strong>icon, Diego Maradona.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Explaining how he noticed Ronaldo<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s animosity toward him, Lineker said: \u201cHe unfollowed me on Instagram.\u201d <\/strong>However, he did not take the setback too seriously and joked about it: \u201cI\u2019ll get over it. I will always like him. I\u2019ve met him a lot of times. I know he\u2019s got the hump with me. But that\u2019s OK. And on that note\u2026 Please Cristiano\u2026 give me a call. Let\u2019s be friends again<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"England<\/p>\n

England legend Gary Lineker.<\/p>\n

Lineker names his Mount Rushmore of soccer players<\/p>\n

In the same conversation, Gary Lineker praised Lionel Messi, placing him above other great stars of the sport. \u201cHe\u2019s my favourite player of all time, quite simply because he\u2019s the best player of all time, in my view,<\/strong>\u201d said the former Barcelona<\/strong>, Leicester City <\/strong>and Tottenham<\/strong> forward.<\/p>\n

\"Neymar<\/p>\n

see also<\/p>\n

Neymar shares four-word Cristiano Ronaldo praise while also honoring Kobe Bryant<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Lineker then explained that while other players deserve special mention, they fall just short of that level, which further highlights Messi\u2019s greatness. \u201cEven the difference between some of the real greats, the Cruyffs, Zidane, (Cristiano) Ronaldo, the fact that you can then have another level above them, quite clearly above them, is truly remarkable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout his injuries, I think we\u2019d have had Brazilian Ronaldo in that conversation. But unfortunately, he did, but he still did incredible things, and he was joyous. So, if I had four, you know, the \u2018Mount Rushmore\u2019 thing, yeah, that would be my four. So, Pele, Maradona, Messi, Fenomeno (Ronaldo),\u201d <\/strong>Lineker added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The debate between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to determine the best player of this era\u2014and arguably of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":899027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,4116,393,191,4884,2746,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-899026","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-cristiano-ronaldo","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-gary-lineker","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-lionel-messi","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116417091521148873","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899026","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=899026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}