I never really got the Lionel Messi hype. Nor Cristiano Ronaldo for that matter.
It is clearly both are two of the best players to ever grace the game. Generational talents. Up there with Pele, Diego Maradona and Johan Cruyff.
Football’s version of Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer. Two of the best ever both at their peak at the same time.
What I never really understood was the new type of fan they created.
About 15 years ago, Arsene Wenger spoke about how in the future, we will see fans support individual players rather than the club they played for. And Messi and Ronaldo were the first that drew this type of attention. And to a lesser extent, Mesut Ozil.
They created “fanboys”. Mainly male’s from the ages of 15-25 who were neither from the country of Ronaldo or Messi’s birth, nor from the country they played in. They would promote Messi and Ronaldo to beyond footballers, beyond sportstars. They would become global superstars.
This sort of thing is not new, and has been around for decades in music. Think Harry Styles or Robbie Williams, Taylor Swift or Beyonce Knowles. Their fans would be screaming at their concerts, crying when they saw them for the first time. They would eat up all content associated with them, read every article written. Buy every song no matter how bad.
And if they released a bad track, they would not have it that it was poor. They would go out of their way to defend it, and look to attack anyone that disagreed.
The worst of them would stand outside hotels, outside restaurants, day in day to catch a glimpse of them, to get a hug.
I always felt sorry for these sort of people. Needing to hero worship well into their teens to clearly make up for a lack of love and affection at home.
And Ronaldo and Messi were similar.
When Messi left Barcelona to PSG, his fans followed.
They unfollowed Barcelona across social media and changed their bio’s to show they were not a fan of PSG. The French side saw a huge jump in followers just because of Messi. AC Milan had similar when they re-siegned Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
When Cristiano Ronaldo left Juventus for Manchester United, the Old Lady lost close to 500k followers.
Ronaldo’s new club – Al Nassr – had just 369k followers on is English language Twitter account in December 2022. Within a month of his signing, this jumped to over 1m, a 183% increase.
It is interesting to note that its Arabic account, followed mainly by people from its region, saw a much smaller jump. just a 13% increase.
This highlights that the the increase was mainly driven from outside the region Al Nassr play in. It was their fanboys from Africa, the far East, America and beyond jumping on the bandwagon.
Inter Miami saw similar – their twitter jumped 174% in a week following Messi’s announcement.
Where Ronaldo and Messi go, their fanboys follow. No longer fans of Barcelona, Real Madrid, PSG, Juventus of Manchester United. They now follow Al Nassr and Inter Miami.
What I have never really understood is the way both “fan bases” spend hours on end attacking each other, trying to diminish the achievements of the other in attempt to prove that their man is better.
Messi and Ronaldo are both two of the best to ever play the game. I have had the displeasure to watch both in the stadium on many occasions. I say displeasure because their sparkling performances usually led to an Arsenal defeat.
I would say 95% of fans will happily sit there and say “Messi and Ronaldo were both brilliant players” and then get on with their day.
That 5% though are odd. Are dangerous. You get Ronaldo fans trying to claim Messi is overhyped, is not very good. And in response Messi fans say the same about Ronaldo.
If you ever end up on that side of Twitter, you realise how toxic it is.
These people do not care about the clubs their heroes play for. It is all about Messi and Ronaldo. They will never have the affinity to a club that I have, that you have.
I loved Thiery Henry when he was in an Arsenal shirt. But the day he left I stopped caring. I was not bothered what he did at Barcelona, or what he won or did not win. And this is the way most normal football are like.
I actually feel sorry for them as they are still trying to promote their man despite both of them now in semi-retirement just looking to see out their career and boost their bank balance.
And they seem to think Ronaldo or Messi care about them. They do not.
So will Messi play tonight? To be honest, I do not really care. It is all about The Arsenal, our preperation. And not about the circus that follows a player who is passed his best and will be retired within a couple of years.
On a final note, I was always Federer over Nadal. I prefered his grace across a court. But I could also respect Nadal’s power, energy and physicality. Both played the game very different. But are the two best to ever play it.
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 
Messi and Ronaldo are not in the same class. Messi plays naturally, it flows with ease. Ronaldo on the other hand worked hard to achieve his results. That is why Messi is a team player who made life easy for his team mates to shine as well. Look at Neymar, Saurez their rythm in Barcelona. Whereas see how Ronaldo destroyed Welch guy and reduced the influence of Benzema in Real Madrid. See what Messi did with the current Argentine team that won Copa America and the World cup.
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