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Cristiano Ronaldo declined to engage in a discussion about his long‑time rival Lionel Messi, according to talkSPORT.
He dismissed widespread criticism by netting a brace in Portugal’s 5‑0 group victory over Uzbekistan, opening his goal tally for the tournament.
Although the Golden Boot debate dominated fan conversations, Ronaldo was not mentioned as Messi, Kylian Mbappé, and Erling Haaland vied for the top scorer title.
By scoring, the 41‑year‑old became the first player ever to score in six World Cups, while 24 hours later Messi made history by becoming the tournament’s all‑time leading scorer.
Ronaldo, widely regarded as the greatest goal scorer, declined to answer any questions comparing him to Messi. When a reporter started a question with Messi’s name, he turned away and answered a different query.
Messi has scored five goals in his first two matches; Mbappé and Haaland have four each, while Harry Kane and Vinícius Júnior have two apiece.
Now Ronaldo has moved beyond the criticism, reminding detractors of his continued impact on the biggest stage.
“We’re getting better. That’s how life is. There are ups and downs in life and in matches and the aim is always to get better.”
Also Read: World Cup 2026: Ronaldo Is A Role Model To Portugal – Martinez
“It’s been a hard week, a very difficult week. Public opinion has been very hard on us, on all the players and especially on me and on the manager.”
“But it doesn’t matter because as you can guess I’ve been in the profession for 23 years and it’s always when things are going well, ‘Cristiano is good’, and when things are going badly, it’s ‘he’s retired, he’s old.’ It’s always like this. But me and my teammates responded well and it’s what we wanted.”
“We’re in a good position, we played well, we played attacking football and it’s difficult to stop Portugal when we’re like this, and it came together for us to score five goals.”
“Honestly I’m very happy and now it’s time to recover and get ready for the next one.”
English (US) ·