Spanish football player Gerard Pique explains why Lionel Messi was more focused on winning trophies rather than “Go*t” competition against Cristiano Ronaldo

The discussion over who is the greatest player of all time between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo is said to have received minimal attention from Messi while he was playing for Barcelona. Instead, Messi reportedly focused on scoring goals and winning titles.

It has been stated by Gerard Pique that Lionel Messi was more concerned with winning championships at Barcelona than he was with competing with Cristiano Ronaldo for the title of “GOAT.”

After coming up through the youth ranks of Barcelona, the Argentine player worked his way up to Camp Nou, where he won a total of ten La Liga titles, seven Copa del Reys, and seven Supercopa de Espanas. He remained there for seventeen years. In addition, he won four Champions League trophies, which was partly due to the fact that he played 778 games across all competitions and ended up scoring 672 goals and assisting on 303 others.

Messi was able to achieve seven of his eight Ballon d’Or trophies with Barcelona, as well as nine La Liga Best Player awards and six European Golden Shoes, as a result of his remarkable run of form that spanned over twenty years in Spain. Despite the fact that he left Barcelona in 2021 on a free transfer to Paris Saint-Germain and then went to Inter Miami the following year, he is still Barcelona’s all-time best striker. He easily surpassed Cesar Rodriguez’s previous record of 226 goals, which he had previously held.

The center half and a long-term member of the team Pique is of the opinion that Messi’s extensive number of titles is evidence that he is concentrating on bringing glory to his previous team, rather than competing with Ronaldo to become the greatest player of all time. Pique made the following statement in an interview with talkSPORT: “He wasn’t that kind of guy.

Despite the fact that he was currently receiving top page headlines in the newspapers, he maintained a strong concentration on the team. He had a strong bond with each and every one of us, yet his sole emphasis was on achieving victories such as the Champions League. When he was winning the Ballon d’Or, he was the best player in the world.

“It wasn’t something that was a priority for him.” The debate over who is the greatest player of all time became even more heated when Ronaldo moved from Manchester United to Real Madrid in 2009, setting a new world record for the transfer fee of £80 million. This move put Ronaldo in competition with Lionel Messi for La Liga titles and domestic prizes.

Pique also asserts that Ronaldo, who has won the Ballon d’Or five times, switched positions from winger to striker when he signed with Los Blancos in order to improve his chances of being etched into the annals of history. He cites the fact that in order to be the greatest at Real Madrid, you need to score goals. He concluded by saying: “But I assumed that he realised that at Real Madrid, if you want to be the best, you have to score a lot of goals.”

Pique and Ronaldo both played for Manchester United under the direction of Sir Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford. Pique came up through the youth program in 2004, while Ronaldo was acquired from Sporting CP the previous year around the same time period. The now 39-year-old Ronaldo scored 450 goals in 438 appearances after making a lucrative move to Madrid. He also won two La Liga titles, two Copa del Reys, and two Supercopa de Espanas simultaneously, in addition to four Champions League trophies.

In 2018, he made the transfer to Juventus, and then between 2021 and 2022, he came back to United for one final look before leaving for Juventus. After making the switch to Al-Nassr, a Saudi Pro League club, in the previous year, it appears like he will be spending the rest of his playing career with the Riyadh-based club.

Pique, on the other hand, was a member of Manchester United for a period of four years, beginning in 2004 and ending in 2008, before going on to join Barcelona. Having spent fourteen years working as a professional for the club, he decided to hang up his boots in the year 2022.