Jose Mourinho provided a thought-provoking answer when asked to choose between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
During his tenure at Real Madrid, Mourinho coached Ronaldo, who achieved an astonishing total of 450 goals in nine seasons.
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At that time, Mourinho was deeply involved in the intense El Clasico rivalry with Barcelona, where Messi was considered his main adversary due to his frequent successes against Real Madrid.
However, the Portuguese manager had his own perspective on the debate over who is the greatest of all time between the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner and Ronaldo…Continue Reading
In fact, the 61-year-old expressed that he could not distinguish between the two, believing they both “set the bar extremely high” with their remarkable accomplishments.
“I think they are lucky and unlucky to be in the same generation,” he said on On the Touchline with Jose Mourinho’ for RT.
“They are lucky because they can compete against each other.
“They look to each other in a positive way and get extra motivation. If there was only one of them, they would have ten Golden Boots.”
Mourinho added “Now, I think they have put the bar really high. And you have the players coming behind, who I like to call the ‘little monsters.’
“The bar has to be high, so it has to be incredible motivation for Neymar, [Kylian] Mbappé and [Antoine] Griezmann. Unfortunately, Cristiano and Messi will not last forever.”
Interestingly, Mourinho previously excluded Ronaldo when naming his top three footballers of all time, instead choosing Messi, Pele, and Diego Maradona.
In addition, earlier this year, during a Q&A session with Rio Ferdinand, the former Manchester United and Chelsea manager also picked Messi as the player he wished he had had the chance to coach.
“Of course I would say the little guy,” Mourinho said in the TNT Sports segment.
“But the little guy was not coachable. But I have to say that in our generation, he was the best player.”
