Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo.
It has long been the big debate in football.
But when Zlatan Ibrahimovic gives his answer, he surprises everyone.
For almost 20 years there has been one big debate in world football, who is really the best. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo conquered the sport, subscribed to the Ballon d’Ors, and have both won pretty much everything there is to win.
The great debate
Both Messi and Ronaldo have long been two of the most famous people on earth, and have taken the sport to completely new levels. Both have broken record after record, won title after title, and have both spurred and triggered each other to new heights. But who is really the best has long been a watershed.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic always had competition with both superstars during his years as a professional player, so he if anyone should be able to give an answer as to who is really the best. But when Zlatan, in an interview with the British journalist Piers Morgan, was asked a question about who really is the best he has seen play, the answer surprised many.
The answer to the sensitive question
The Swede chose not to mention either Messi or Ronaldo – but instead the Brazilian Ronaldo Nazario.
– For me, the best is someone who changed the sport. The one that you see as a young supporter, and you just want to do exactly what it does. For me, Ronaldo, when he came out, he was different, says Zlatan.
Ibrahimovic recalls trying to emulate Ronaldo as much as possible.
– I remember when I was little. When I watched his matches, and at that time we only had Youtube, so we could see his tricks and his dribbling, and his goals. All of us checked him out on Youtube, and it wasn’t even on mobile. We sat in school and looked at the computers, and studied all his tricks, all his dribbling. And then we went out and tried to do the same thing, he says, and continues:
– For me, he changed things. And he didn’t play football, he was football.
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