In an interview with German YouTube channel Freekikerz, Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp gave his opinion on perhaps the most controversial question in world football in recent times: who is better, Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo? And he was quick to reply:
“For me, Messi”. However, Klopp did not fail to also hail the Portuguese star, and stated: “I could not admire Ronaldo more than I already do”.
The German coach did not hesitate when choosing between one of the stars but considered that a perfect player would have the height, speed, and momentum of CR7.
In addition, Klopp praised the professionalism of the greatest top scorer in Real Madrid’s history and said that the Argentine player wasn’t physically gifted. The coach of the Reds also said that the two are almost impossible to mark, and the similarity between them is the fact that they have been at the very top of football for a very long time.
“And on the other hand, there is little Messi, who makes everything look so simple. That’s why I like him, maybe a little more as a player on the pitch. But Cristiano is also an absolutely incredible player,” he concluded in that way.
The fact is that Messi and Ronaldo went down in the history of football after dominating almost all individual awards for the past decade.
Jurgen Klopp has already faced both in the Champions League knockout stages. Both performances were great, but Klopp did better against Messi last year, as Liverpool came back from 3-0 down to beat Barcelona 4-0 at Anfield with no Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino.
Against Ronaldo, Klopp eliminated Real Madrid back in 2013, as Robert Lewandowski scored four in the first leg of the Semifinals to make Dortmund go through the final to lose to German rivals Bayern Munich.
Klopp also faced Ronaldo with Liverpool, but it was in that terrible final in Kyiv, where German keeper Loris Karius’s two howlers gave the title to the Spaniards. Ronaldo didn’t score, but maybe that has an impact on Klopp’s opinion.