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4.0 

Messi vs. Ronaldo

By Jonathan Clegg & Joshua Robinson
Messi vs. Ronaldo by Jonathan Clegg & Joshua Robinson digital book - Fable

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Publisher Description

Essential World Cup Reading | Featured in The New York Times' 'What to Read During the World Cup'

Wall Street Journal reporters Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg offer a deeply reported account of the intertwined sagas and legacies of two of the greatest soccer players of all time—Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo—examining how their rivalry has grown from a personal competition to a multi-billion-dollar industry, paralleling the stunning rise, overwhelming excesses, and uncertain future of modern international soccer.

For over fifteen years, almost any conversation about international soccer has always come back to two players—Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo—undoubtedly the greatest of their generation but with styles, attitudes, and fanbases that couldn’t be more different. For millions of people around the world “Messi or Ronaldo?” isn’t simply a barroom argument, or an affirmation of fandom, so much as a statement of philosophy, of values, of what global soccer is today and of what it will be tomorrow.

Now Wall Street Journal reporters and co-authors of The Club, Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg, unite the stories of Messi and Ronaldo into a single modern epic of global sports, detailing how one rivalry changed both the game and the business of international soccer—forever. Based on dozens of firsthand accounts and years of original reporting, Messi vs. Ronaldo weaves together the stakes, color, and characters at the heart of each man’s story, going inside the locker rooms and boardrooms where their legends were forged and revealing off-field drama as gripping as anything that happened on it. From their contrasting origin stories to their divergent career arcs and their conflicting reputations, these players have built their successes on opposite paths, yet each, in his own way, offers a riveting tale of triumph and excess. Taken together, their story embodies the astronomical growth of international soccer, how social media has revolutionized the power of sports celebrity, and how the desire to capitalize on the billions of dollars these players represent electrified some of the most storied clubs in Europe—Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Manchester United among them—and cost them almost everything.

With the 2022 World Cup almost certain to be the last for both of these figures, Messi vs. Ronaldo offers a deeply researched look at their legacy and grapples with the impact that their talents have had on the game for better and for worse. Much more than a retelling of the dual accomplishments of these great players, this is truly a biography of a rivalry, one that has become a crucial lens for understanding the past, present, and future of global soccer.

10 Reviews

4.0
“As someone who has spent two decades of her life watching football, I can say that Messi and Ronaldo have both been great players fueled by their grit, talent, skills, genius, and passion for the beautiful game. This book has been entertaining, insightful, witty, and informative. However, you’ll have to excuse me, if the 20-year-old me would say that she’s still going to choose Ronaldo over Messi. It’s the Red Manc and Madridista in me. In the future, though, I hope to pick up a book and read about other Titans who exist during this whole Messi and Ronaldo era. I mean, we have seen the likes of Iniesta, Xavi, Sergio Ramos, Fernando Torres, Drogba, Rooney, RVP, Kroos, Luka Modric, etc. They all have amazing skills that deserved to be written and talked about too. Anyone who’s ever seen the EUROS in 2018 could tell you that Torres started the plot toward Spanish domination in football or like how Iniesta and Xavi were the ones who actually assisted and aided Messi in their prime Barca years or like how RVP scored that immortalized header in Brazil World Cup against Spain or how Kroos dictates Madrid’s pacing and how he scored that physics-defying goal against Sweden or how Luka Modric led Croatia to the World Cup and almost won the world cup for his country. The point is, there are other greats too. Not just Messi or Ronaldo. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. HAHAHAHA.”

About Jonathan Clegg

Jonathan Clegg is an editor for The Wall Street Journal, his work has also appeared in the Daily Telegraph, the Independent (U.K.), and FourFourTwo magazine. 


They are the co-authors of The Club: How the English Premier League Became the Richest, Wildest, Most Disruptive Force in Sports and Messi vs. Ronaldo: One Rivalry, Two GOATs, and the Era That Remade the World’s Game.

Joshua Robinson

Joshua Robinson is the European sports correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, and has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post and Sports Illustrated

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