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?
Because none of them can reach Messis level. Ronaldos level you can work towards, Messis you cant. No matter how hard you work, you wont emulate Messis game. Ronaldo showed how much you can achieve with hard work, his greatest achievement is that he is being compared to Messi and if you can be compared to him by working day in and day out, its admireable.