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?
Ronaldo is much more charismatic and he has the streets. He came from a poor background and managed to go to the top, so it makes sense that a lot of these wingers or center forwards look up to him. He may not be as talented as Messi but he has as many big moments in the big stages that make people fall in love with the game. Let’s not forget that he was very fun to watch and he was creative with the ball.
Messi is like super quiet, doesn’t talk much outside of the pitch, aside from his height issues didn’t face much adversity as he was already tipped to be one of the best since his academy days and he plays simple football like he never played in the streets and he was always at Barcelona since he was a child.
He also played for Man United and Real Madrid which are the two biggest clubs in the world. Messi only played for Barcelona