Barcelona boss Xavi Hernandez believes that Lionel Messi was motivated to become the best player possible due to his rivalry with Cristiano Ronaldo.
The two superstars had swiftly ascended to stardom in the opening seasons of their career, but their rivalry went into overdrive when they spearheaded Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively. The duo were two of the greatest players ever to step onto a pitch, and they led two of modern football’s greatest sides.
Ronaldo’s nine years at Los Blancos saw him obliterate the club’s goal scoring record with a scarcely believable 450 goals in just 438 appearances, before leaving for Juventus in 2018. Messi’s 672 goals across 16 Barca matches was not just the club’s highest ever goal tally, but more than tallies of the second highest, third highest and fourth highest combined.
The two players shared a remarkable sporting rivalry across more than a decade. They won 12 of 13 successive Ballon d’Or titles between them, with Messi edging out Ronaldo with seven individual honours compared to the Portuguese superstar’s five gongs (Luka Modric, in 2018, was the only player to break the sequence).
Conversely, Ronaldo leads Messi on Champions League titles won with his five crowns eclipsing Messi’s three in Europe’s premier club competition. Messi has won more league titles but Ronaldo – who is two years his elder – has scored more goals at both club and international level.
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Current Barca boss Xavi, the Argentine’s former club captain at the Camp Nou, explained on the documentary Messi, aired on BBC Sport: “Does the rivalry make Messi better? Yes, I am certain. For Cristiano to have Messi and Messi to have Cristiano.
“Cristiano even gave him an extra push. An extra push to become a better player. Cristiano and Leo probably won’t admit it, but it’s true. I am convinced they both used to keep an eye on each other. If you are competitive, then you want to be the best. That is human nature.”
Messi became Barcelona’s highest ever appearance holder in 2021, the same year that he left the club to join Paris Saint-Germain after the Catalan club could not renew his contract, eclipsing Xavi’s previous record of 767 first-team appearances for Barca.
