Johan Cruyff was the showcased star at this year's 'Aspire4sports' gathering held yesterday in Berlin, which has seen the likes of Lothar Mattaus, Clarence Seedorf and Gaizka Mendieta give talks. It was obviously only a matter of time before the famous Dutchman was asked about Messi and Ronaldo.
Journalists asked Cruyff tough questions over the difference between the current Barcelona squad that is failing to perform so far this season and teams gone by; a question that he obviously found uncomfortable to answer criticizing the Catalan club. "Yes, obviously I can see differences between this Barcelona team and others that came before team. Maybe you don't see it? I only give my opinion when you ask for it."
He was later asks over the debate between who is better: Mess or Ronaldo. It would seem that the legend has a strong favorite and picked the Argentinian captain over the Portugese striker. "For me, I have always liked smaller players who are technically gifted because I was one of them.
"Cristiano is a great player but above all he is a goalscorer. He'll never be a player that an grow a team or make sure the team plays well, what he does amazingly well is score and for that reason he's a great player. On the other hand Messi is much more of a team-player: he spreads the ball out, has a lot of assists...for me he's a great all round player, not goalscorer, even though he has scored a lot of goals.
"For me there is a big difference between being a great player and a great goalscorer. For that reason you seed to look at things in a different way, focusing on the details. Only a few people actually do this.It's something difficult to explain because nobody will understand it."
He also said who he thought was going to win this year's Balon d'Or, "there isn't even a discussion, nobody is at Messi's level. It will return to him this year."