It appears the Ronaldo v. Messi rivalry is as ripe as ever.
After an anonymous performance in Portugal’s World Cup opener against DR Congo last week, Cristiano Ronaldo reintroduced himself to the world stage after scoring a brace against Uzbekistan on Tuesday. In doing so, Ronaldo joined a number of other global superstars like Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, and Erling Haaland in putting up multi-goal performances.
For fans of the beautiful game, there’s been no lack of big names scoring big goals. The 41-year-old Ronaldo just needed a bit more time to rev the engine.
That star power has been a storyline through the first two weeks of the tournament, as evidenced by the race for the golden boot. But Portugal’s legendary striker didn’t want to hear anything of it when asked about his chief rival, Messi, after finding the back of the net twice against Uzbekistan.
“Yesterday, Lionel Messi scored two goals,” a reporter said, beginning to ask Ronaldo a question. But the second the name “Messi” left the reporter’s lips, Ronaldo turned away, encouraging another reporter to begin asking a new question.
“Go ahead,” Ronaldo could be heard repeating a few times, completely ignoring the question about Messi coming from the first reporter.
