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Forget Messi, this is Ronaldo's time to prove he's the greatest

Cristiano Ronaldo is back for Real as they start their Champions League final defence. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
Expert
7th July, 2016
18
2486 Reads

Much has been made of Lionel Messi’s hasty decision to pack in international football. But he has made his bed and in it he must lie.

The Argentine magician can never properly be considered as one of the all-time greats without international success, and in a situation where that doesn’t happen, throwing in the towel has marked his card for good.

This, therefore, is Cristiano Ronaldo’s time to prove he is right up there with Pele and Diego Maradona, or to even mark himself out as the very best of them all.

If he can win Euro 2016 with Portugal, it will rank up there with Maradona’s literally single-handed inspiration of Argentina to the 1986 World Cup.

» Overnight at the Euros: France finish Germany

This Portugal side is as bad as we’ve seen.

In Ronaldo however, they have a genuine superstar, whose adoration of himself is only outstripped by his adoration of scoring goals and winning football games.

He has dragged Portugal by their bootlaces – so called ‘lucky losers’ who finished third in their group, behind Hungary and Iceland of all teams – to the final of the European Championship.

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In clubland, Messi has had the wood on Ronaldo – Barcelona’s La Liga wins of 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2016 far outstripping Real Madrid’s four titles in the same period.

Messi has been the jewel in the Barcelona crown, the centrepiece of arguably the greatest club side of them all, one which at the very least brought to light a new way of playing which, for some time, was simply unstoppable.

But on the international stage, there will be no further comparisons of these two superstars who have spurred each other on to greater and greater heights with each passing season.

Messi’s dash is done – the 29-year-old deciding enough was enough after Argentina’s penalty shoot-out loss to Chile in the Copa America final, a third major final loss in succession for Argentina.

Ronaldo is, at 31, still at the peak of his powers, but even with his unbreakable self-confidence he must know he is in the Last Chance Saloon when it comes to international success.

The taste of defeat still lingers – especially given the Euro 2004 final was lost at the hands of unfancied Greece. But Ronaldo was only 19 then and he was playing in a team with some bona fide greats of Portuguese football – Deco, Manuel Rui Costa, Fernando Couto and Luis Figo; some names.

It was a changing of the guard as Portugal lost, they said farewell to the Golden Generation, their back-to-back FIFA World Youth Cup winning players of 1989 and 1991, and ushered in a new generation spearheaded by Ronaldo, one which has been seriously underwhelming.

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If Portugal win the final it will be because of Ronaldo – he’s the only player they’ve got capable of deciding the match in their favour.

And if he does, it will be irrefutable evidence of Ronaldo’s place among the greatest, and finally a compelling case of superiority over his great rival Messi.

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