Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will forever be compared to each other. It's hard to talk of one without mentioning the other. Anything either of these two exceptionally talented players do is intensely scutinised and taken into the discussions about which one of the two is a better player.
One of Messi's teammates has had his say on the diminutive magician. With five minutes to go in Barcelona's recent 8-0 over Cordoba, Barcelona were already six goals to the good, when they were awarded the penalty. Regular penalty taker Lionel Messi, sitting on two goals in the game, allowed Neymar to take the spotkick to get the Brazilian on the scoresheet.
It's a gesture that Neymar says he'll never forget:
It's a detail I will never forget. He could have scored a hat-trick, but he left the penalty to me. It left me without words. I learn a lot from him, both on and off the pitch.
Neymar has been with Barcelona and Messi for the last two season, and it appears that not only is Messi helping the Brazilian phenom to be a better player, but also a better person.
We're not going to take sides in this seemingly endless debate but you have to wonder if Ronaldo would make a similarly selfless act? Or, from the other point of view, if that selfish drive is what makes Ronaldo the player he is?
