The 2022 World Cup has been the latest chapter in the long-running rivalry between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
Whilst both players arrived in Qatar with high hopes of winning the trophy for the first time in their careers, it is Messi who is left standing after leading Argentina to Sunday's final. Ronaldo's competition, on the other end, turned into a disaster as he lost his place in Portugal's starting line-up before they were knocked out by Morocco in the quarter-finals.
It is safe to say that Ronaldo's miserable tournament will have gone down particularly well in Argentina, where there is only one answer to the question of who is the best of their generation. With Messi one step away from international football's biggest honour, Argentina is close to dealing Ronaldo a hammer blow in his quest to be remembered as the greatest of all-time.
In the past, it has been brutally put to Ronaldo that he is "hated" in Argentina due to his rivalry with Messi. Paulo Dybala, one of those who has played with both superstars, opened up on telling Ronaldo that when they became teammates at Juventus.
However, Ronaldo's self-confidence and ability to ignore the inevitable noise around him shone through in response. Instead of being angry, he simply laughed off the criticism he faces from an entire nation.
Dybala told the Argentine national team website in 2020: "On a personal level, I was surprised for good because I did not know him, none of us knew anything about him. Even in the previous Champions League we were knocked out against Real Madrid and there had been many crosses.
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"But then we found something else, he is an excellent guy, very sociable and friendly inside and outside the locker room. Always ready to talk, to listen, that surprised me, being an important figure, they are not always like that.
"Once I sat down to talk to him, we were traveling. I said 'look, if I'm honest, we in Argentina hate you a bit, because of your personality, your way of being, then you really surprised me because I found something else'.
"He laughed because he said 'I know that's the way it is, but I know how I am, I'm used to being criticised for that'."
Whilst it may be that Argentina's fans "hate" Ronaldo, it is nothing compared to the love the feel for Messi. And he was reminded of that fact in a heartwarming moment after guiding Argentina to the World Cup final as a reporter pointed out what he means to the country.
If he can lift the World Cup on Sunday then it will go some way to settling the Ronaldo debate which has dominated both of their careers. Ronaldo, however, has previously stated that he does not believe failing to win the World Cup will impact his own legacy.
