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?
I myself, as a huge Messi fan relate to this somewhat. When I saw Messi play as a kid, I thought he was an anomaly. A superhero of sorts. It was too obvious he wasn’t like the other players. Just by looking at him, I knew instantly that what he was doing could not be learned or copied. One doesn’t simply try to walk through hordes of defenders without getting tackled.
Which is why, Neymar was the first player I actually wanted to copy and play like. Neymar is a showman, a crowd pleaser. And he did tricks that could be learned and practised. And it worked. Ever since I saw Neymar, I kept kept practising the elastico and his signature trap.
Which is why players probably look up to Ronaldo more, because you can at least make a half decent attempt at what he does through sheer dedication and hardwork.
This! and when we say this we don’t mean he didn’t work hard. If you saw Messi from the time he was a kid until now, you just immediately see that no matter how much you practised, no matter what you did, you will never be like him.
But if you have good size, good athleticism, you know that with hard work, you can somewhat be like Ronaldo