If you asked the typical football fan who the best player of the twenty-first century is, you could bet your bottom dollar that the majority would say Lionel Messi – not Piers Morgan. He believes that four footballers are better than the Argentine.
Messi, now 37 and playing for Inter Miami, has taken the globe by storm after breaking his Barcelona duck in November 2003. He has won a record eight Ballon d’Or awards and is largely regarded as one of the best players to ever grace the pitch.
ESPN selected the top 25 players of the twenty-first century, and Rosario-born Messi topped the list. The record-breaking legend was swiftly followed by Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry, Zinedine Zidane, and Luka Modric.
Kylian Mbappe, widely recognized as one of the finest players in the world, is ranked fifth on ESPN’s list, followed by Ronaldo Nazario (ninth), Sergio Ramos (14th), and Manchester United star Wayne Rooney (22nd).
In response, Morgan, who has not hidden his admiration for the aforementioned Ronaldo throughout the years, presented his list of four players better than Messi, who ‘finished football’ in 2022 by winning the Qatar-based World Cup.
1. Cristiano Ronaldo.
As previously stated, Morgan believes that Ronaldo is the best footballer of the twenty-first century. The Portuguese has been a talisman throughout his career, and his goal-scoring exploits have carried him to the Middle East, where he plays for Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia.
He built a reputation for himself at Portugal’s top flight club Sporting CP before joining Manchester United in the summer of 2003 as the most exciting adolescent in world football. What has followed is nothing short of legendary, isn’t it?
2. Ronaldo Nazario.
Regardless of how many injuries Ronaldo, also known as R9, sustained throughout his career, he is still regarded as one of the best to have ever done it; he was powerful in front of goal, dribbled in and out of defenders with relative ease, and was the prototypical striker.
As previously said, injuries to his knee stopped the centre-forward, widely regarded as one of Brazil’s best footballers of all time, from reaching his full potential. Nonetheless, considering his team and individual accomplishments, the fans continue to admire his career.
3. Thierry Henry
Henry, a one-time World Cup winner, is widely regarded as one of the best footballers to have never won the Ballon d’Or, but Morgan’s decision to declare him the third-best player of the twenty-first century could be attributed to his Arsenal devotion. The Frenchman, who played for Arsenal, Barcelona, AS Monaco, and the New York Red Bulls over his 794-game career, scored 360 goals and assisted 168 times.
4. Ronaldinho
Ronaldinho is Morgan’s fourth-place finisher, one spot ahead Lionel Messi. Formerly of Barcelona and AC Milan, the one-of-a-kind magician embodied everything delightful about the beautiful game: cunning, agility, and creative genius. To put the Brazilian’s prowess into context, he received a standing ovation from opposition supporters at the Santiago Bernabeu in 2005 following his brilliant performance on Los Blancos turf.
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