Seeing as this was bumped, I came across this debate again, and every time I see people say 'let's appreicate both' or even worse, that Ronaldo is better, in relation to this guy, it just becomes apparent that football fans are a lost cause.
This Ronaldo-Messi debate severely flatters the former and does a great disservice to the latter. They both have great stats but Messi is clearly MILES better as a footballer, to the point where the gap in many attributes is laughable.
As for trophies etc, he won 6 Ligas to Ronaldo's 2 in 9 seasons at RM, so Ronaldo clearly did not dominate Spain like his fans claim. Ronaldo also has an appalling record in many CL Finals and whenever Portugal exit an international tournament, so his 'winning mentality', 'clutchness' that clearly escapes him in finals, international tournaments, or when he's not playing for Real Madrid is an utter myth too.
The thing about these two guys is if you compare them by stats they're very close, but when you actually WATCH THEM PLAY it's apparent that one is light years better at football than the other. It will be a disgrace if history doesn't treat them qualitatively as well as quantitatively.
Ronaldo is an excellent player of course, but not special relative to all-time greats - he's not a football genius like Maradona, Cruyff, Platini, Zidane, Zico, Ronaldinho, R9 were. He's just a physical machine with passable dribbling and passing skills who uses his physicality to score a lot of goals. He's not a wonderful footballer like the above were.
Truly amazes me when I see him compared to a complete outlier/alien like Messi, who's in the top 3 dribblers, final third passers, and playmakers of all time (arguably top 1 in every category there). It's like I am living in the Twilight Zone - like other people have lost it and cannot see what i can see, and are seriously arguing that the sky is red and saying it is blue (ie that Messi is much better) is a ridiculous take.
I just put it down to them being young/clueless about football/not having much playing experience/Ronaldo fanboys. Or a combination of all.
I honestly think C Ronaldo might be the most overrated player of all time, just because people compare him to Messi, or say he's better than Pele, Maradona, Cruyff et al. It's a disgrace of a debate.
