Former player Ronaldo Fenômeno denied having said that Lionel Messi is the greatest player in the history of football. In an interview with Romário TVthe classic number 9 of the Brazilian team stated that the statement attributed to him came from a false interview published by a Spanish newspaper. According to Ronaldothe alleged speech began to circulate on social media after Argentina’s victory over Algeria in the first round of the group stage of the World Cup, a match in which
“This was going viral on the internet after the game in which he scored three goals. I also didn’t understand what was happening. My communications director and partner, Victor Rios, started talking to people in the press to find out where this was coming from and we discovered that it was an interview that Mundo Deportivo, from Barcelona, invented and distributed it with a photo of me and quotation marks as if I had spoken”, he stated.
The former striker explained that his team investigated the origin of the statement after the repercussion of the content. According to him, the publication used his image and phrases attributed to him without the interview taking place. Despite denying having called Messi the greatest player in history, Ronaldo stated that considers the Argentine one of the biggest names in world football. During the conversation, he placed Argentina’s number 10 among the five best players of all time.
“Messi, for me, is top 5 in the world, historic, global and forever will be. But there are these five guys who are there for me: Pelé, Maradona, Messi…”, said Ronaldo.
During the chat, Romário suggested the inclusion of Ronaldo and Cristiano Ronaldo in the list. In response, the Phenomenon stated that Romário himself could also be among the greatest in history: “You (Romário) could easily be there, as a center forward. Who played more than us as a center forward? And these guys weren’t center forwards like we were”, he declared.
