With Messi being a freak of nature, any player including Pele , Maradona and now CR7 would be under his shadow. But let’s assume,Messi somehow does not exist, how would CR7 be viewed? Would he be the undisputed greatest like Micheal Jordon for football, considering all the league titles and champions league he lost to Messi’s Barcelona.
This is why I call him the 2nd best of all time very safely. Even with Messi he has taken 5 BDRs, I don’t believe Pele, Maradona, Di Stefano are doing that against Messi.