Former Tottenham star Toby Alderweireld has named Lionel Messi as the toughest opponent he faced, snubbing Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Belgian defender has faced both superstars several times, in the Champions League, La Liga and the Copa del Rey. He has won just one game in the 11 times that he has come up against either Messi or Ronaldo across his career.
It puts him in a privileged position to determine which of the two attackers can be considered the best in the world. And Alderweireld has now made it clear that he is in no doubt as to which of the duo he rates the highest.
“Messi. I usually read the play on the field and often I succeed. But Messi... ooh. One night at Wembley when we lost 4-2 against Barcelona (with Tottenham ) he was unprecedented... really unprecedented. You can’t get a grip on him," the 33-year-old told his WTTAA podcast.
"Everything he does, he does it just that little faster than you. He does this, then he does that, it goes so fast. I really had a feeling I couldn’t do anything against him. You try to get in duels with him.
"He looks like a slender guy so you try to get physical. But he’s not slender at all, if you look at his thighs you think... wow. He is so fast. The quality, the ball control, It's not normal.
"I played against Ronaldo many times. Of course, his numbers don’t lie, but Messi was the best, because he is simply elusive. You can’t get hold of him.”
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Alderweireld has faced Messi twice at club level, with both outings coming in the 2018/2019 Champions League group stages. The first game was the 4-2 defeat he mentioned in the podcast, during which Messi scored two goals as he ran Spurs ragged.
In the second game, Messi started on the bench, before coming on for the final 25 minutes of a 1-1 draw at the Nou Camp. Ronaldo may have a better scoring record against Alderweireld, but the Belgian still singled out Messi as playing on a higher level.
When asked how teams could stop Paris Saint-Germain star Messi, Alderweireld said: “Hoping time goes as fast as possible. We got back into the game which was positive and negative.
"We started attacking more but I had to face him even more one-on-one because there was more space. That’s the thing, you don’t know what he’s going to do. That’s the special thing, you can’t train for that.”
Messi is currently in fine form as he prepares to lead Argentina at the World Cup, scoring seven goals and notching eight assists so far this term for PSG. Ronaldo meanwhile is struggling to convince Erik ten Hag he can be called upon as a regular starter.
His latest lowpoint of the season came on Sunday when he was left on the bench for the entirety of the 6-3 defeat to Manchester City. Alderweireld is back playing in Europe with Royal Antwerp after a year in Qatar, captaining the Belgian side from centre-back.
