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?
Tevez who played with both mentioned it once. Ronaldo would show up at the gym at 6AM and do a lot of ball handling exercises while for Messi, the ball handling comes naturally and he doesn’t have to train that as much. Young players believe that with hard work they can overcome any obstacles. If you have ever listened to Haaland’s interviews, he always mentions hard work.