Cristiano Ronaldo Comments on Lionel Messi After 2016 Ballon d'Or Win

Cristiano Ronaldo believes he would have won more individual awards than Lionel Messi if the pair played on the same team but also praised his rival. 

Following his fourth Ballon d'Or win on Monday, per France Football (h/t ESPN FC's Ian Holyman), he said:

"It would be interesting to see both of us in the same team. I think great players should play together. So if we were in the same team, I think I would have more than him, but he wouldn't be far off.

Everyone knows Messi is a great player. He's won fiveBallons d'Or."

Indeed the Barcelona man still leads the way in that regard but now has just one more than the Real Madrid star, who received over more 400 points than Messi in the voting for the 2016 award.

Ronaldo added he has ambitions of equalling the Argentinian's tally: "I'm going to try. I'll be in the fight, as always."

Naturally, the 31-year-old grabbing the award ahead of his counterpart proved divisive. Bleacher Report UK's Tim Collins hailed his achievement:

The pair have dominated the award in recent years—the last time a different player won it was Kaka in 2007—and they'll each go down as two of the best to ever play the game.

Messi has accrued a staggering 532 goals and 223 assists in 666 appearances over the course of his career for club and country, while Ronaldo has found the net 567 times and assisted 189 in 824 outings. 

It would have been fascinating to see what kind of dynamic the pair would have if they were to feature in the same team and, while the calibre ofMessi's all-round play has arguably been better than Ronaldo's for some time, the Portugal forward is perhaps correct in his assertion.

As the more selfless and creative of the pair, were the two to play together it's possible Messi would play a more withdrawn role, where he would focus as much on supplying Ronaldo with ammunition as he would on finding the net himself.

Further, Ronaldo has always appeared to be more attracted to the limelight, and winning individual awards in football is often almost as much about brand exposure as it is the quality of play.

Unfortunately, the idea is likely to remain hypothetical as neither player looks set to make a switch to their biggest rivals late in their careers—we can only speculate what it would be like.

Meanwhile, the duo look set to dominate the award for years still to come, with Messi's two-year age advantage potentially seeing him finish his career ahead of Ronaldo in the final tally of individual awards.

Christopher Simpson