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?
Messi is much better than Ronaldo footballing wise, but Ronaldo has much more aura than Messi.
Chelsea fan here who watched prem in the mid-late 2000s, tho Ronaldo was Chelsea’s rival, he was one of my fav player growing up. Every kid wanted to be like Ronaldo. His hair, his long sleeve, his wrist band. Kids used to imitate the way he took freekicks. You know… taking 5 step back and then opening your leg wide. The way he ran with the ball. He was also a good dribbler who uses flashy skills. His long range goals and very powerful shooting. And post 2010’s his celebration was another iconic thing.
Messi on the other hand was just an insane baller, imo the best ever. But that was about it. When you’re young, we get excited over people doing skills to dribble than just raw dribbling. Messi simply has no aura about his game. His not savage(like Ronaldo/Zlatan), he’s very humble. Keeps to himself.
I thought I was going to be a footballer. I learnt how to run and shoot like Ronaldo. Because of him, I learnt how to do step overs. I remember watching tons of videos of Ronaldo doing football freestyle in training and just being obsessed with it. He inspired me to be a better footballer tho I didn’t make it.