{"id":25193,"date":"2026-03-07T12:01:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T12:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/07\/messi-or-ronaldo-son-heung-min-surprising-choice-as-world-cup-icon\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T12:01:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T12:01:23","slug":"messi-or-ronaldo-son-heung-min-surprising-choice-as-world-cup-icon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/07\/messi-or-ronaldo-son-heung-min-surprising-choice-as-world-cup-icon\/","title":{"rendered":"Messi or Ronaldo? Son Heung-min, surprising choice as World Cup icon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ue-c-article--first-letter-highlighted\"><span class=\"capital-letter\">I<\/span>The current Los Angeles player is well known for his admiration for Lionel Messi, with whom he recently played in MLS. However, on this occasion, Son chose Cristiano Ronaldo as his favorite player for the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the fact that many footballers choose the name of a player from their own nationality, Son, always proud of his honesty, chose the Portuguese star, who he has previously named as a player who has inspired him throughout his professional career.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ue-c-article__summary\">\n<figure class=\"ue-c-article__media ue-c-article__media--video  video-dailymotion\"><figcaption class=\"ue-c-article__media-caption\" itemprop=\"description\">\n<p><span class=\"ue-c-article__media-description\">Lionel Messi and Donald Trump&#8217;s &#8216;perfect&#8217; video the White House wants to see<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote class=\"ue-c-article__blockquote\">\n<p>Cristiano Ronaldo has always been my biggest idol and I grew up watching him play for Manchester United along with Park Ji Sung. I still watch him play and he&#8217;s still my idol<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"ue-c-article__blockquote-author\">son<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2 class=\"ue-c-article__subheadline\">Son chooses Cristiano Ronaldo as his favorite World Cup legend<\/h2>\n<p>His compatriot Lee Jae-sung cited Park Ji-sung as his favorite legend, Brazilian Estebao cited Ronaldo Nazario as the best player in the history of the national team, Colombian Luis Diaz cited Radamel Falcao, and Japan&#8217;s Kubo cited Yuto Nagamoto, all of whom chose their own country&#8217;s soccer players, but for Son, there is no debate: CR7 is the best.<\/p>\n<p>However, this decision has been questioned by his supporters, as Ronaldo has not only not been a champion compared to Messi, but has also scored fewer goals in the tournament, and for many, he hasn&#8217;t done enough to deserve his place at the World Cup. But the LAFC striker&#8217;s opinion goes beyond the numbers and seems to be more of a personal matter.<\/p>\n<p>This is probably due to the position he plays and the characteristics of the player, with many similarities to the style of play of Cristiano Ronaldo, who played as a left-sided winger during his time at Manchester United and Real Madrid.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"ue-c-article__subheadline\">Cristiano Ronaldo&#8217;s World Cup numbers<\/h2>\n<p>Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the players who has appeared in the most World Cups, with five appearances, along with Lionel Messi, Lothar Matth\u00e4us, Gianluigi Buffon and Andres Guardado. He could soon join Lionel Messi as the only players to have played in five different World Cups<\/p>\n<p>Ronaldo is currently recovering from a delicate hamstring injury, which was initially thought to be just a muscle strain, but it looks like the Portugal star will be part of the Portugal squad, playing in his sixth and final World Cup with a team that was one of the heavy favorites to win.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marca.com\/en\/football\/mls\/2026\/03\/07\/69abffa622601d18078b45e7.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IThe current Los Angeles player is well known for his admiration for Lionel Messi, with whom he recently played in MLS. However, on this occasion, Son chose Cristiano Ronaldo as his favorite player for the 2026 World Cup. Despite the fact that many footballers choose the name of a player from their own nationality, Son,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-25193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-latest"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Messi or Ronaldo? Son Heung-min, surprising choice as World Cup icon - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/07\/messi-or-ronaldo-son-heung-min-surprising-choice-as-world-cup-icon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Messi or Ronaldo? Son Heung-min, surprising choice as World Cup icon - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"IThe current Los Angeles player is well known for his admiration for Lionel Messi, with whom he recently played in MLS. However, on this occasion, Son chose Cristiano Ronaldo as his favorite player for the 2026 World Cup. 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