I played with Lionel Messi at Barcelona – this is what he thought of Cristiano Ronaldo rivalry’

Lionel Messi supposedly paid little attention to the GOAT debate between himself and Cristiano Ronaldo when he was playing for Barcelona, instead focusing on scoring goals and winning titles

The Argentinian spent 17 years at the Camp Nou after rising through the youth ranks of Barca, claiming 10 La Liga titles, seven Copa del Reys and Supercopa de Espanas a-piece. He also racked up four Champions League trophies, largely in part to his 672 goals and 303 assists in 778 games across all competitions.

Thanks to his impressive run of form over almost two decades in Spain, Messi achieved seven of his eight Ballon d’Or accolades with Barcelona, as well as nine La Liga Best Player awards and six European Golden Shoes. While he parted ways with the club in 2021 on a free transfer to Paris Saint-Germain, and then moved to Inter Miami last year, he remains as Barcelona’s all-time leading goalscorer, eclipsing Cesar Rodriguez’s previous record of 226 goals with ease.

Centre-half and long-term team-mate Pique believes that Messi’s long list of titles are a testament to his focus being on leading his former club to glory, as opposed to pipping Ronaldo as the greatest player of all time. Speaking to talkSPORT, Pique claimed: “He wasn’t that type of guy.

He was very team-focused even though he was getting front page headlines in the newspapers. He was very close with all of us and just focused on winning titles like the Champions League. He was the best and he was winning the Ballon d’Or.

It wasn’t something that was a priority for him.” The GOAT debate grew even more fiery when Ronaldo made the move from Manchester United to Real Madrid in 2009 in an at-the-time world-record transfer for £80million, challenging Messi for La Liga titles and domestic trophies.

Pique also claims that five-time Ballon d’Or winner Ronaldo made the move from the wing to striker when he signed for Los Blancos to help etch his name into the history books, citing how to be the best at Real Madrid you must score goals. He added: “But I assumed that he realised that at Real Madrid, if you want to be the best, you have to score a lot of goals.”