Roberto Carlos snubs Lionel Messi, names Real Madrid icon as his toughest ever opponent
Real Madrid legend Roberto Carlos has picked his former Los Blancos teammate Luis Figo ahead of Lionel Messi as the toughest opponent he has ever faced. Figo and Carlos played together at the Santiago Bernabeu from 2000 to 2005 before the former moved to Inter Milan.
Meanwhile, Carlos spent 11 successul seasons at the club since arriving from Inter in the summer of 2006. He made a name for himself as one of his generation's best goalscoring full-backs, blazing a trail down the left flank with aplomb for Los Blancos for more than a decade.
Carlos dueled with Barcelona legend Lionel Messi, who had emerged on the scene in the early 2000s. The Argentinian is widely regarded as one of the game's best players, having scored 850 times for club and country and still going strong, winning every possible title with club and country.
However, in an interaction with GOAL, Carlos picked Figo over Messi as the toughest opponent he came up against.
The entire interaction went as follows as Carlos chose between a pair of players:
"Pavel Nedved or Thierry Henry: Henry"
"Henry or Figo: Figo"
"Figo or Juaquin: Figo"
"Figo or Samuel Eto'o: Figo"
"Figo or Neymar: Figo"
"Figo or Dennis Bergkamp: Figo"
"Figo or Zlatan (Ibrahimovic): Figo"
"Figo or Francesco Totti: Figo"
"Figo or David Villa: Figo"
"Figo or Alessandro Del Piero: Figo"
"Figo or Ronaldo Nazario: Figo"
"Figo or Lionel Messi: Figo"
"Figo or Ronaldinho: Figo"
In 245 games across competitions for Los Blancos, Figo contributed 57 goals and 94 assists. Meanwhile, Carlos contributed 70 goals and 115 goals in 527 games across competitions for the club.
How Lionel Messi has fared against Real Madrid
As mentioned above, Lionel Messi is one of the best ever to grace the beautiful game, scoring goals galore for club and country. That includes 26 goals (and 14 assists) in 47 outings across competitions against Real Madrid.
All of those goal contributions - in 45 games - came while he was at Barcelona betweeen 2004 and 2021. The all-time Barca top scorer (672 goals) won 20 of his games against Los Blancos, losing 16.
Messi's goal contributions against Real Madrid came in four different competitions - La Liga, UEFA Champions League, Copa del Rey and Supercopa Espana. Expectedly, most of the goal contributions - 18 goals and nine assists in 29 outings - came in La Liga, winning 14 times and losing nine.