# Sports

Can’t say that Lionel Messi is the best ever: Ronaldinho

Messi had started to make a cut into the starting XI of Blaugrana at a time when Ronaldinho was part of the team at Camp Nou.

SNS | New Delhi | December 13, 2019 5:24 pm

Can’t say that Lionel Messi is the best ever: Ronaldinho

According to Brazilian legend Ronaldinho, six-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi is the best player of his generation but not the best of all time.

“I can’t say that Messi is the best ever, but he is the best in his time,” Ronaldinho told the EFE news agency in Mexico as quoted by Goal.

The ex-Barcelona star refused to compare the Argentine talisman to the likes of Pele and Diego Maradona.

“I don’t like comparisons because it’s hard to identify who the best in history is, there’s Diego Maradona, Pele, Ronaldo,” said Ronaldinho.

Messi had started to make a cut into the starting XI of Blaugrana at a time when Ronaldinho was part of the team at Camp Nou.

Since then, the Argentine has turned out to be one of the greats of the game, breaking many records of the legends preceding him.

Notably, Messi bagged his world-record sixth Ballon d’Or at the ceremony in Paris early this month. He surpassed the likes of Liverpool stars Virgil van Dijk, Sadio Mane and his long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo to bag home the coveted award.

With this award, Messi has taken his Ballon d’Or tally to six and has become the most successful player since the inception of the award, surpassing Cristiano Ronaldo, who has five such awards to his name.

The Barca skipper netted his 35th league hat-trick in their La Liga match against Mallorca on Sunday (IST), and surpassed arch-rival Cristiano Ronaldo for most hat-tricks in the Spanish top flight. Messi scored thrice in Barca’s 5-2 win, which is also his 53rd hat-trick overall in his career.