I’ve read two other books by Wall Street Journal reporters Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg: The Club, which was about the English Premier League, and The Formula, about Formula 1. I’m a novice football fan and I don’t follow racing of any kind at all, but in each case, Robinson and Clegg did such a great job elucidating the human stories behind these behemoths of the sports world that my lack of knowledge in both cases and my lack of interest in one couldn’t have mattered less. I decided that I could and would read anything the two writers published. First stop: their account of the rivalry between the two greatest footballers of the 21st century and its broader impact on the global game.
Originally published in 2022 and updated with a crucial epilogue for the paperback edition a year later, Messi vs. Ronaldo is not really a biography of the two men in the title, nor is it really an account of their exploits on the pitch. There’s more in here about boardrooms than locker rooms. Because while each player’s rise to stardom is an interesting story in theory (Messi overcomes his diminutive stature to become a boy wonder, moving halfway across the world to Spain as a boy of 12; Ronaldo emerges from the remote region of Madeira to become a soccer god) their less-than-sparkling personalities do not make them great copy.
The rivalry and their joint story takes off for the stratosphere when Ronaldo leaves Manchester United to join Real Madrid. With Messi already ensconced at Barcelona, his boyhood club, this meant that the two best players on the planet would be playing on two of the planet’s best teams, bitter rivals in Spain’s La Liga. The competition between Real Madrid and Barcelona over league titles, cup titles, and Champions League titles captured the world’s attention. It also sent player salaries, transfer fees, television rights, and corporate sponsorship deals soaring. The Messi-Ronaldo rivalry had far greater reverberations than just the results whenever their two squads met in their league matches or even in the Champions League.
While Robinson and Clegg do their typical great job at finding the human interest in these stories, like when they talk about the Dassler family rift that spurred a bidding war to put Adidas or Puma kicks on the best players. If they occasionally drift a little far from the book’s intended subject matter, they can easily be forgiven.
Messi and Ronaldo had longer primes by far than most footballers, but they have now settled into the twilights of their careers. The book ably delineates the financial complications caused by their iconic statures and aging legs. Ronaldo left Madrid for a three year tenure at Juventus and a disastrous return to Manchester United, after which he took a huge payday to lend some of his credibility to football in Saudi Arabia. Messi eventually had to do the unthinkable and leave Barcelona, first for PSG in France and then MLS’s Inter Miami, though he had the greatest highlight of his career along the way with his spectacular run at the 2022 World Cup, leading Argentina to the title.
Both Messi and Ronaldo seem to be lined up for one last go at the World Cup next year, but it won’t be long before both men are no longer seen on the pitch. Whenever that happens, it will be a much longer time before their extraordinary careers are forgotten.