- Sergio Ramos is one of the few footballers fortunate to have played with both Ronaldo and Messi.
- Ramos struck up an unlikely bromance with Messi at PSG.
- The Spanish defender enjoyed more success playing alongside Ronaldo at Real Madrid.
Sergio Ramos made his final decision on the GOAT (Greatest of all Time) debate after playing with both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. The thought of Ramos and Messi ever playing together would have sounded fanciful in the extreme several years ago. The pair battled it out for over a decade during their hugely successful spells with Real Madrid and Barcelona, respectively.
Messi often found himself on the receiving end of some brutal treatment from Ramos, who has been sent off more times than any other footballer in the history of Europe’s top five leagues. Despite that, Messi regularly got the better of the Spaniard. No player has scored more goals in the history of El Clasico than the legendary Argentine forward.
Ramos left Madrid for Paris Saint-Germain as a free agent in July 2021. Like the rest of the world, the Spanish defender was shocked when Barca icon Messi joined him at the Parc des Princes one month later. Many football fans understandably expected the relationship between the pair would remain, at best, frosty. But the superstars quickly put any differences to one side and ended up forming an unexpected bromance on the pitch.
Before that, though, he had spent a large portion of his career playing with Messi’s greatest rival, Ronaldo. Throughout their careers, the Argentine and Portuguese superstars have been compared repeatedly. The debate over which player is the greatest of all time has raged on for almost two decades and will likely continue for many more to come. Having played with both men, though, Ramos had his say on who he ultimately thought was the best ever.
Ramos Selected His GOAT
The Spaniard Chose Messi Over Ronaldo
After spending almost two years training and playing alongside Messi, Ramos described the South American as the greatest footballer in history. In an interview with PSG TV, per Goal, the defender admitted that he thought the former Barcelona man is the best footballer of all time. Coming from a former Real Madrid man, this was quite a surprise. Ramos said:
“There was suffering for several years playing against Messi. I am now enjoying him.
“He is the best player football has ever produced.”
Yep, it seems Ramos made up his mind and reached the conclusion that Messi is the GOAT. This comes despite the Spaniard spending almost a decade playing alongside Ronaldo at Real Madrid. The pair won pretty much everything there was to win at club level together with Los Blancos, but all it took was two years with Messi in France for Ramos’ opinion on who was the best player of all time to be solidified.
As Barcelona’s record goalscorer, La Liga’s record goalscorer, Argentina’s record goalscorer, and likely soon the Inter Miami record goalscorer, Messi has been phenomenal seemingly from the get-go in his career. He’s been destroying teams for close to 20 years now, and it’s not hard to see why Ramos believes he’s the best – despite the fact that Ronaldo certainly has a case himself.
| Sergio Ramos’ stats with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Years played together | Games | Points per game | Joint goal participation | Minutes | |||||
| With Cristiano Ronaldo | 2009-2018 | 339 | 2.27 | 15 | 28,441 | ||||
| With Lionel Messi | 2021-2023 | 46 | 2.30 | 2 | 6,672 | ||||
| Statistics as per Transfermarkt | |||||||||
Messi and Ronaldo Are Both Legends
While Ramos’s comments probably hurt Ronaldo, in particular, the centre-back was merely echoing the opinion of many other football fans after the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner lifted the World Cup with Argentina in December 2022. Messi has now won everything in football and has nothing more to prove to anybody as he approaches the winter of his extraordinary playing career.
Messi knows that regardless of whatever else he achieves between now and the day he retires, his status as one of the greatest players, if not the greatest, of all time, is safely secured.
Ronaldo has his own fans, though, and there are many out there who believe that the former Manchester United star is actually the best footballer in the history of the game. It’s easy to see why too, with the 39-year-old still operating at an exceptional level despite edging closer to his 40th birthday.
The period of time when the two stars went head-to-head in La Liga, with Barcelona and Real Madrid trading wins in the El Clasico and fighting for dominance over Spain, will go down as some of the most exhilarating years in football history. Watching two players at such incredible levels compete in the manner in which they did was like something we’d never seen before.
Regardless of who is ultimately the greatest of all time, there’s no doubt that these two are in a conversation above the vast majority to ever lace up a pair of boots.