Do you also watch porn from the 70s and 80s?
My post wasn't meant to cause any bickering, it is just a matter of personal connection and memories. Messi or anyone else wasn't there when I started watching football so to compare him to Ronaldo to me is pointless. It is a childhood connection, it will never be overcome or replaced. I am glad I have witnessed Ronaldo as a child and see his career through.
To see him rise and rise again into formidable form was joyous and to see his talent shine through the darkest of days just fills me up with incomprable excitement. Ronaldo's second is Zidane, a player I hated as a Juvemerda but couldn't wait for him to join Madrid.
Children of the modern age will remember Messi, people before me remember Van Basten. It is a generation thing, just like Beast and Maradona. You sit down in front of the tv and as a child you don't understand tactics, you don't understand substitutions and you barely keep up with anything else around not even the league standings. You see your team in 6th position and you wonder why aren't they higher but you don't care. Why? Because next week you will see a player who you adore and everything they do seems relevant to you, personally. You live in a fantasy land and they are the protagonists of the dream.
When Ronaldo was dropping so deep from half way line and running with the ball, as a striker it actually doesn't make sense why he would do that but as a child you find it adventurous, exciting, daring, magical and when Ronaldo scored, to me it was like seeing David Copperfield finish his trick. Nothing in the world mattered during those moments and all you care about is how can someone do such a thing?
As you grow older you know the training they go through, you know the tactics, you know the consequences, you know what is on the line, you know everything. Now a days it is like watching the making of Avatar and then watching it. Still entertaining and magical but just not the same. That is why Messi to me is extraordinary but won't have the same effect as Ronaldo or Zidane had on me when I was a child.