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?
Well, in a way I don’t mean to be condescending, not everyone has to believe Messi is the best player ever. That debate has always been highly contentious, mainly because it is impossible to compare players from different eras (it’s already hard to compare players from the same era let alone different ones)