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Ronaldo vs Messi: Maradona, Cafu and Del Bosque choose their favourite player
LIONEL MESSI is a street player who learned everything from Diego Maradona.
That is the view of Argentina icon Maradona himself, while Vicente del Bosque cannot choose between Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
The eyes of the world will be on Messi and Ronaldo during the World Cup this summer.
Lionel Messi is hoping to go one further after leading Argentina to the World Cup final in 2014.
And Ronaldo heads into the tournament with a Portugal side that won Euro 2016 two summers ago.
The debate over who is better, Messi or Ronaldo, has raged on for years.
Both men have five Ballon d’Ors to their name.
Messi vs Ronaldo: Football legends reveal who is the best
All the things that Messi does, I did it a lot earlier
And Bwin interviewed a number of the world’s footballing icons to work out who they preferred.
Ex-Brazil star Cafu said: “Messi. Ronaldo keeps breaking record, but Messi still plays every game at such a high level. If I had to choose, I would take Messi.”
While former Germany World Cup winner Stefan Effenberg simply said: “Ronaldo.”
But it was Del Bosque and Maradona who offered the most interesting answers.
Former Spain boss Del Bosque - who oversaw the 2010 World Cup win as well as two European Championship triumphs - was political in his reply.
“That depends more on what shirt you support,” he said, referring to Messi’s hoard of Barcelona fans compared to Ronaldo’s Real Madrid supporters.
“I think they are both very good.
“Messi is like a street player, the kind you’ve played against in your neighbourhood in the square.
“And the other guy (Ronaldo), it’s as if they designed him on a computer.”
As for Maradona, he reckons he was better than both of them.
“All the things that Messi does, I did it a lot earlier. We created the football, so we did it first,” he said.