Endrick, a new football star recruited to Real Madrid, quoted Cristiano Ronaldo as his idol. This is also seen with Haaland, Mbappe, Saka, Vini Jr, Rodrygo, Kvara. So many young players today all state Ronaldo as an influence for them. Messi has more accolades than Ronaldo, but the only young players I can think that stated him as an influence is Julian Alvarez and Jude Bellingham. Why do you think most young players respect and admire Ronaldo more than Messi?
Ronaldo and Messi were at the same level for the majority of their careers so it makes sense that both have a big following of youngsters. Ronaldo May get a little extra because he wasn’t just a great footballer, but also basically a model that women would swoon over. Makes sense to me that a lot of kids aspire not just for that level of football success, but also for the fame/women that come with it. But I also don’t really think it’s true that there are more people that look up to Ronaldo than Messi - every year we hear about a new round of top talent that say Barcelona is their dream (which is how Barcelona are able to keep getting top players for below market value) and Messi is 100% responsible for that. Most recently Felix, Luis Diaz, etc