No sooner had Ronald Koeman’s side recovered from their crushing 0-3 defeat by Juventus at Camp Nou on Tuesday than Lionel Messi, Barca’s talisman, came under severe trolling by Cristiano Ronaldo’s sister.
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On her Instagram account, Elma Aveiro shared an apparently photoshopped picture of the Argentinian kneeling and bowing to his purported rival, Ronaldo, with the latter standing astride and striking a signature celebratory pose.
"My King! Best ever. Pride of my life", she captioned the shot.
The two legendary footballers being brought together in one image couldn’t go unnoticed online, with 40,000 people of her 430,000-strong following liking the post and leaving thousands of comments.
The Juve ace insisted in response that there is no personal rivalry between him and the Barca forward, saying they have been comfortably competing and sharing top individual prizes with him.
"I have always had a cordial relationship with Messi", Ronaldo said, further praising the Argentinian:
"I never saw him as a rival. He always tried the best for his team, and I tried the best for mine. I always got on well with him. I am sure he will say the same if you ask him”, he explained, admitting, though, that in football, people typically look for “a rivalry to create more excitement”.
In the recent Champions League encounter, Ronaldo stole the limelight as he scored twice from the penalty to propel the Turin side to a convincing win. Juventus overtook Barcelona and made it to the top of the group.
The Camp Nou match was the first time that the duo had gone on the field together since Ronaldo left Spain for Italy in the summer of 2018.
The professional rivalry between Messi and Ronaldo peaked when the pair were playing for Barcelona and Real Madrid respectively. While Ronaldo has claimed overall five Ballons d’Or to date, Messi can boast six. Yet the Portuguese ace has the edge regarding Champions League titles: Ronaldo holds five, compared to Messi’s four.
