There is no dispute. There is no battle to consider. Cristiano Ronaldo
was a worthy winner of the Ballon d'Or but Lionel Messi is currently
playing better football than any other player, ever.
"Lionel Messi is better than Ronaldo," the former Barcelona star David Villa told
Goal this week. "He is the best player in the world. Everything about him is the best."
Earlier
in 2015, Ronaldo's performances were so stellar that Real Madrid
Castilla coach and club legend Zinedine Zidane described him as being
"an alien". But barely six weeks later it is Messi who is the
extraterrestrial.
The story of how Messi has ended up on top of
the world ahead of this weekend's decisive Clasico at Camp Nou begins in
defeat; Real Sociedad on January 4. Barcelona had failed to take
advantage of Real Madrid's loss against Valencia earlier in the day and
missed out on top spot in La Liga. It was a blight on what had been a
solid, if unspectacular, season under Luis Enrique for the Catalans.
Real
had decisively vanquished their rivals in their only previous meeting
of the season back in October and momentum looked to be with them after a
run of 22 successive victories. On a personal level, the momentum was
with Cristiano too.
He was putting the finishing touches to his
Ballon d'Or winner's speech after unveiling a statue dedicated to
himself in Madeira. Ronaldo had found the net 25 times in the league
before that Valencia loss. Messi had only scored 15.
Messi's
standards dropped for the best part of 18 months while Ronaldo gobbled
up the individual prizes. The Argentina captain played unhappily. He was
unwilling or unable to do what Tata Martino asked of him. He did not
cut the same figure as the player who demolished all in front of him for
Pep Guardiola and Tito Vilanova. That sense of unease Messi brought
with him spread like a virus among other players and lingered until that
night in San Sebastian was over.
Messi was a substitute that
evening, annoyed that coach Luis Enrique would not start him after a
delayed return from his winter holidays. The next day he missed
training. Reports of an upset tummy were easily dismissed. A wedge was
driven between Messi and his coach. Luis Enrique gave nothing away
though, insisting to the press that all was well. Untrue. Messi and a
cadre of senior players were dissatisfied with the coach's methods. The
past few weeks, then, have been an exercise in crisis management at Camp
Nou.
Messi and Luis Enrique are not singing from the same hymn
sheet when it comes to their accounts of what occurred around the time
of the Sociedad defeat. Luis Enrique carried on as normal. Messi demurs
when it suits him but has been forthcoming about changes which have
taken place since the defeat at Anoeta.
"Luckily, after the
match against Real Sociedad, where we didn't start the year very well,
everything changed," the forward said in an interview with
Mundo Leo.
"Now there is a different dynamic to the team, everything we do comes
off. The team has a lot of confidence and we've changed the attitude and
drive. That's why we're playing like we are at the moment.
In
other words, Luis Enrique has been left under no illusion about who the
boss is at Barcelona. It might not be an ideal working scenario but
Messi is playing the football of his life. Barcelona have since won
every game bar one.
"This year I tried to get to my best form as
quickly as possible," he revealed. "I knew I was coming off the back of a
not very good year, during which I went through a lot of problems on
and off the field."
There is that tax case, there was the deep
disappointment of losing the World Cup final when he was expected to
deliver, and he saw his friends in the Barca dressing room, namely Cesc
Fabregas and Pinto, depart.
Messi has excelled in the
circumstances and enjoys the full backing of his board and colleagues.
It is Ronaldo who is snarling at his team-mates and walking off the
field unappreciative of the thousands who come to catch a glimpse of
him. Real Madrid's ordinary form has given Ronaldo questions he will
not, or cannot, answer.
Ronaldo has had a lot on his mind since
winning the Ballon d'Or and conditions have not been ideal for him to
maintain his performance levels. There has been a high-profile split
with his partner and he had to deal with the fallout of his
ill-conceived birthday party, but one thing will hurt above all else.
Messi,
the man by whom Ronaldo defines his own output, is making a well-worn
argument redundant. It was once Ronaldo and Messi vying for top spot and
then the rest falling in line behind. Messi is now leaving Ronaldo in
his wake.
"For me Messi is the best player ever," former Madrid and Barca star Robert Prosinecki told
Goal.
"Chapeau to Ronaldo, but Messi is someone special. He's an incredible
player; it looks like you’re watching him on a Playstation. It’s
impressive to see how he did it for many years, also Ronaldo, but Messi
is better in my opinion."
The only question now is whether or not
Ronaldo can do anything to match his great rival. It is unlikely that
Ronaldo will show either the aptitude or patience to keep up.
Look
how Messi has evolved. He drops deep. He makes the play. He nominally
occupies the right side of attack but the entire field is his domain.
The nutmegs, the one-twos, the shimmies, the feints... the tricks are
not only back but they are better than ever. He looks brand new.
"It
was a challenge to change the image that I had given out last season
and to be the player I had been in previous seasons again," Messi said.
"That was my objective and that's how I came out at the start of this
year - really up for it."
How things change. It is true that
Messi is no longer the same player who won four Ballons d'Or. He is
better and so are Barca, suffering just one defeat - to Malaga - since
the Anoeta loss. Real have been beaten four times and drawn twice. There
are mitigating circumstances in the sense that Sergio Ramos, James
Rodriguez and Luka Modric have all been injured. They have not been able
to count on their favoured XI. In these times of difficulty, Cristiano
has not been found.
He has scored only five league goals since
that Valencia loss and that dissatisfaction with team-mates, the
surliness in his dealings with the press, have all betrayed a fed-up
figure.
Ronaldo cannot conjure the play for them like Modric or
James. He is a goalscorer, first and foremost, stationed on the wing.
The relentless consistency with which he found the net and the ease in
dismissing any defender in his way ensured he was regarded as the best.
Real
Madrid had won the Spanish, European and world titles before that day
they lost to Valencia; they were brought crashing to earth before they
went intergalactic. Since then Cristiano Ronaldo has been unable to
emulate his intergalactico form from earlier in the season, and it is
Messi who is playing like he is from another dimension.