Gary Lineker says comparing Messi and Ronaldo is nonsense, but later subtly tweets that Messi is the best
What's the story?
Cometh the hour, cometh the man...This is how Cristiano Ronaldo was described by BT Sport, official broadcaster of UEFA Champions League in UK, as he drilled a penalty into the low right corner of Jan Oblak's net. That handed Juventus a decisive lead on aggregate to progress into the next round of the competition.
Following Ronaldo's brilliant hat-trick for the Italian club, Gary Lineker, a fine finisher himself, weighed in on the Messi-Ronaldo debate, calling it 'nonsense'. But he did post a poll on his Twitter account asking his followers to choose between the two.
Later on he didn't shy away from letting his followers know who he prefers between the duo, as he agreed with a comment that said Messi is the greatest - thus giving his verdict on a 'nonsensical' debate.
In case you didn't know...
Lineker, who honed his goal-scoring skills at Leicester City and Everton, was the first British player in the history of football to win the Golden Boot award at a FIFA World Cup. He ended up being the 1986 edition's top scorer, with 6 goals.
The Englishman is a well-known Barcelona supporter, having spent 3 seasons at the Camp Nou.
He is one of the very few professional footballers to have never been booked in his entire playing career. It may be hard to believe, but he was never shown a yellow or red card on the pitch.
The heart of the matter
Lineker, who currently hosts BT Sport's coverage of the UEFA Champions League, first congratulated Ronaldo on equaling Messi's record of eight hat-tricks in the competition.
Soon after this tweet he posted a poll for his followers, asking them to vote who is the better among the duo of Messi and Ronaldo - a never-ending debate that was seemingly getting on his nerves.
But what followed this chain of events wasn't surprising. Lineker, who has praised Messi countless times before, replied to one of his followers who said that the Argentine is the best, by pointing out that she was correct, thus picking the mercurial forward as his favorite player for the umpteenth time.
What's next?
Messi and Ronaldo used to be in a cut-throat battle for the top scorer position during their time together in LaLiga. But it seems the former, with 26 goals, will take home the European Golden shoe this time around.