The eternal and utterly pointless debate as to whom out of Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo is the better footballer got the weighty opinion of former Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson yesterday and Fergie remained steadfastly in his former player's camp but not for reasons you might have suspected.
While trying to define what makes Ronaldo edge the argument Fergie went down the "wet night at Stoke" route and rather casually dismissed Messi - saying while he understood why people rated him as the best player in the world, the difference between the two was:
"But Ronaldo could play for Millwall, Queens Park Rangers, Doncaster Rovers or anyone, and score a hat-trick in a game. I'm not sure Messi could do that.
"Ronaldo has got two feet, quick, good in the air, brave - Messi is brave of course, I think Messi is a Barcelona player."
The Barcelona player is a jibe Messi has had thrown his way in very rare instances in the past with the notion that Xavi and Andres Iniesta have been supplying the Argentinean and generally making his life easier. Ronaldo meanwhile has had to soldier on at plucky Real Madrid with only the likes of Luka Modric, Toni Kroos, Gareth Bale and James Rodriguez easing the burden on him.
So while like anyone, Fergie is entitled to his opinion, his reasoning behind it is - to borrow an favourite phrase of Fergie - a load of b******.
Ferguson was speaking to the BBC.
Picture: SPORTSFILE
