TThe sporting rivalry and comparison between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo has added a new and unexpected chapter.
A player from the Ivory Coast who plays for Villarreal caused a stir when he drew comparisons between a famous anime and two soccer legends.
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“Messi is Goku, Cristiano is…”
In Just Riadh’s new blog posted on YouTube on December 5th, Nicolas Pp looks back on his football career: his first steps with Asenso in France, his time at Arsenal where he won the FA Cup and the 2020 Community Shield, his season with Nice and his current experience in Spain.
However, one of the moments that stole the show was when discussing Messi’s talent with CR7, where Pp claimed that the Argentine captain is better than the Portuguese, but he did it in an unusual way: by referencing the famous anime “Dragon Ball Z”:
“Cristiano Ronaldo gives a lot of interviews and talks a lot about Messi. That’s how you know he’s number two,” he said, adding: “You know Dragon Ball Z? You know who Vegeta is? He always talked like that and was angry. And who didn’t talk about it? Goku. That’s it. Messi is Goku. Cristiano is Vegeta.”
Furthermore, to give another example related to soccer and manga, Ivorians referred to Leo as “Naruto” and CR7 as “Sasuke” for the same reason. “He’s annoyed that people smaller than him are always ahead of him,” he added.
When told that the 40-year-old Portuguese was just 46 goals away from reaching 1,000 goals in his professional career and becoming the only player to achieve such a feat, Pp didn’t seem impressed and downplayed the achievement.
“1,000 goals? Since he came, he has scored 200 penalties. 200. Messi knows how to score goals, how to pass, how to dribble, how to move the team and create space. Messi can do that, but Cristiano does not,” he said.
The Pp comparison sparked debate and divided opinion among sports and anime fans, but what is clear is that even after 20 years and despite the numbers, goals, assists and titles of both legends, the greatest rivalry in soccer is far from over.
