Messi had played with much better players than Ronaldo prior to 2014 also and won more with likes of Xavi.
Ronaldo was man of the match in last years CL final not Modric.
Messi is better but Ronaldo is by far Reals best and most important player and he isnt a 'penalty box poacher' either.
Lol. Ronaldo was MOTM of that final only in name, definitely not in merit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuKTwraiz0M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLJzkLwV1xM
All the evidence is in there.
Ronaldo only had 3 good actions the whole match. 2 one touch finishes, 1 of which was deflected and would've been a simple save for Buffon and the other which was created entirely by Modric. He also had one control+low cross that was close but didn't even find his target, and like 1 pass through slight pressure in the entire rest of the match. He lost every single duel and completed 0 dribbles, had 0 key passes or chances created. Didn't hold up the play or anchor the defensive line with his positioning or have any notable role on the ball really. He had less touches than frigging Buffon (22) and 3 turnovers.
Modric had several great runs and passes, long and short. He was defensively active and involved in several recoveries. Ronaldo's 2nd goal was created entirely by Modric's interception in the final third and then his great delivery for the low cross. It was Modric and Isco who took control in the 2nd half and won the midfield battle for RM after Juventus was all over them in the 1st half and had 0 turnovers the entire match despite having a way bigger role on the ball. He had 1 decisive gamechanging action to Ronaldo's 2 (and his was a lot more difficult) and completely eclipsed Ronaldo in terms of impact in every other area of the match. When you look at the details it's not even that close really, but I wouldn't expect you to look at the details.
Ronaldo has been RM's best contributor, but not by that much. And even then, you can make a pretty good argument that Modric played a bigger role in their most significant successes. Outperformed Ronaldo in all 3 CL finals and was THE key player in 2 of them while contributing to the clutch game-saving action of the other one. Multiple better performances in bigger games, etc.
I love Messi like God, but it's not like he had terrible players to play with, Xavi/Iniesta. Messi has had wonderful players playing with him as well, just like Ronaldo.
It's not just about how they played next to good players but rather how dependent they were on them for their individual performances and success. Even without Xavi, Messi has proven himself countless times to be a one man attacking machine that carries our offense. Whether it be goals, throughballs, dribbles, forward 1-2's, etc. he does it all consistently and his impact is clear.
Ronaldo's greatest successes came when he took on the most diminished role of his career and his impact was at its lowest. He had other players doing a lot of the offensive gruntwork and yet because he's the "face" of RM people equated his impact on them to Messi for Barca when it's clear that Ronaldo is just a great cog in the machine while Messi is a goddamn engine.
He'll go down top 10 all time, maybe fringe top 5. He is truly great, but when you're compared to someone like Leo you're likely gonna fall short in a lot of ways.
