Messi vs Ronaldo, Ini Fakta-fakta Mengejutkan....
Ronaldo vs Messi: Inside the Feud between the Poseur and the Dwarf
Editor : Ismail Gani
Translator : Novita Cahyadi
KEDUA bintang telah menghabiskan enam tahun terakhir sebagai seteru utama di lapangan dan di ajang penghargaan Ballon d'Or namun kita tidak pernah melihat mereka ngobrol, dan lebih banyak saling menghindar.
Lionel Messi dan Cristiano Ronaldo mempersiapkan diri untuk menghadapi laga penting Argentina lawan Portugal di Old Trafford, Selasa, maka timbul pertanyaan: apakah mereka benar-benar membenci satu sama lain atau apakah saling menyimpan rasa hormat satu sama lain?
Julukan Tidak Menyenangkan
Dalam bukunya tentang Jose Mourinho tiga tahun di Real Madrid, Diego Torres menulis bahwa beberapa orang di sekitar Ronaldo menjadi rujukan untuk mengacu pada Messi sebagai 'kerdil' setiap kali mereka membicarakan dia.
Istilah tersebut tampaknya diterapkan untuk memotivasi Ronaldo dan meyakinkannya bahwa ia lebih baik dari pemenang empat kali Ballon d'Or. Apa Torres tidak pernah menyadari bahwa komentar menghina pada Messi pernah dilontarkan Ronaldo.
Perang Penghasilan
Ketegangan di antara keduanya juga lantaran mangkel terhadap persaingan penghasilan.
Pada upacara penganugerahan Pemain Terbaik Eropa 2012, Ronaldo sangat marah karena presiden Barcelona Sandro Rosell mendampingi Messi dan pemenangnya jatuh pada Andres Iniesta, sementara Presiden Real Madrid Florentino Perez tidak hadir dan malah mengirim direktur Pedro Lopez untuk mewakilinya.
Ronaldo saat ini juga memasuki musim keempatnya di Madrid tanpa kenaikan gaji sementara tampaknya kontrak Messi diikuti penyesuaian gaji hampir setiap enam bulan. Hingga September 2013 Perez memberi Ronaldo kontrak lima tahun senilai Rp3,4 triliun yang melampaui Messi.
Citra
Selama bertahun-tahun Messi tampil sebagai pemalu, rendah hati, anak ajaib sementara Ronaldo adalah sosok yang kerap menjengkelkan. Namun citra laki-laki telah berubah.
Wartawan yang meliput play-off Piala Dunia Portugal menekuk Swedia pada 2013 tidak akan pernah melupakan Ronaldo berkeliling area pers dengan anaknya yang berusia tiga tahun, Ronaldo Jr, menuntun ayahnya, seraya berkata kepada wartawan, "Dia tidak pernah gagal' setelah ayahnya berhasil menjebol gawang Swedia untuk kemenangan Portugal 1-0. Ketika Ronaldo berhenti untuk menjawab pertanyaan pers sang bocah menarik celana ayahnya seraya berkata: "Ayo, ayah, saya tidur sama ayah malam ini? "
Namun ketika citra image Ronaldo mulai menurun, Messi malah jadi sorotan. Kasus dugaan penggelapan pajak terhadap dirinya dan ayahnya tengah bergulir di pengadilan. Dan dia digambarkan sebagai sosok otoriter di di ruang ganti Barca. Kabarnya setelah Real Madrid menang 2-1 pada laga terakhir Pep Guardiola di El Clasico terakhir pada 2012, sang pelatih mencari Messi hanya mengingatkan: "Apa yang harus Anda lakukan adalah memilih tim untuk menang, bukan apa yang Anda lakukan."
Kabar lain juga mengatakan bahwa Messi mengirim pesan singkat dari bus tim kepada Guardiola ketika untuk memberi peluang Zlatan Ibrahimovic menempati posisinya di satu pertandingan pada 2009.
Internasional let-down
Hal lain yang menyatukan mereka karena sama-sama gagal di laga internasional ketika membela tim nasional masing-masing.Ronaldo angkat koper setelah pertandingan grup Piala Dunia.
Peluang Messi di Piala Dunia Brasil lebih baik tapi masih tidak dapat meniru Diego Maradona dengan memenangkan trofi setelah Argentina kalah dari Jerman di final. Kedua orang sekarang mungkin akan menyelesaikan karir mereka tanpa Piala Dunia dan keduanya akan memahami rasa frustrasi karena tidak mampu memenuhi harapan bangsanya, seperti dilansir MailOnline.
THEY HAVE spent the last six years as rivals on the pitch and on the Ballon d’Or short-list yet we have never seen them sharing so much as a post-match conversation, much less swapping shirts.
As Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo prepare to face each other when Argentina play Portugal at Old Trafford on Tuesday, Pete Jenson looks at the rivalry and asks: do they really despise each other or is there a begrudging mutual respect?
Unpleasant nicknames
In his book about Jose Mourinho’s three years at Real Madrid, Diego Torres wrote that some of the people around Ronaldo had taken to referring to Messi as ‘the dwarf’ whenever they discussed him.
The term seems to have been applied to motivate Ronaldo and convince him that he was better than the four-times Ballon d’Or winner. What Torres never suggests is that the derogatory comment ever came from Ronaldo himself.
The Wages War
Much of Ronaldo’s Messi-directed ire stems from his sense of injustice at not always being treated the same.
At the 2012 European Footballer of the Year ceremony, Ronaldo was furious that then Barcelona president Sandro Rosell accompanied Messi and eventual winner Andres Iniesta to the presentation while Real Madrid president Florentino Perez stayed at home, sending low-ranking director Pedro Lopez in his place.
Ronaldo at the time was also entering his fourth season at the club still with his original deal in place while it seemed Messi’s contract was being improved on an almost half-yearly basis. By September 2013 Perez had awarded Ronaldo a new five-year deal worth £17million a season putting him above Messi, whose deal was renewed at the end of the season to restore parity.
The image
For years Messi came across as the shy, humble, boy wonder while Ronaldo was the brash poseur with the model girlfriend. But the image of both men has changed.
Reporters at Portugal’s World Cup play-off win over Sweden in 2013 will never forget Ronaldo wandering through the press area with his then three-year-old son, Ronaldo Jnr, leading the way, telling the assembled media, ‘He never fails’ after his father’s goal had given Portugal a 1-0 lead.
When Ronaldo stopped to answer questions there was a tug on the trouser leg from his son who had the media in stitches saying: ‘Let’s go, daddy, I am sleeping with you tonight?’
But while Ronaldo’s image has softened, Messi’s has hardened. A tax evasion case against him and his father is going through the courts. And he has been depicted as an at-times authoritarian figure in the Barca dressing room. It is claimed that after Real Madrid won 2-1 in Pep Guardiola’s last Clasico in 2012, the coach sought out Messi only to be dismissed by the player who told him: ‘What you should have done is pick a team to win, instead of what you did do.’
It is also said that Messi texted from the back of the team bus to Guardiola at the front criticising him for giving Zlatan Ibrahimovic Messi’s central-striking berth in one game in 2009.
Ronaldo and Messi have not exactly swapped personas. It is still Ronaldo who steps out with Russian model Irina Shayk, and Messi is unlikely to become an underwear model anytime soon, but the pair are no longer quite at opposite ends of the personality spectrum they once were. Both are doting dads and both can be driven and dominating forces in the dressing room.
International let-downs
Another thing that unites them has been their failure to deliver on the international stage. Ronaldo went home after the group matches of this summer’s World Cup and was the subject of more headlines off the pitch than on it with constant concerns over his fitness and a bizarre topless model stalker, the Brazilian former Miss Bumbum, having to be banned from Portugal’s training sessions.
Messi had a better tournament but was still unable to emulate Diego Maradona by winning the trophy as Argentina lost to Germany in the final. Both men will now probably finish their careers without a World Cup winners’ medal and both will understand the frustration of not being able to meet national expectations.
