November 21, the newly crowned Ballon d’Or winner Rodri, in an interview with Spanish media, stated that Messi is the greatest player of all time.
Rodri highly praised Messi: “In my eyes, Messi is undoubtedly the greatest player in history. When he has the ball, it means danger is about to strike.” He also shared his experience of facing Messi: “Every attempt to tackle him was futile; he could easily get past defenders as if they didn’t exist. As soon as the ball was at his feet, I knew something bad was going to happen.”
Rodri has faced Messi multiple times in his career. Even after transferring to Manchester City and achieving a series of accomplishments, the Spanish midfielder still deeply understands the difficulty of competing against Messi.
When asked who the most influential footballer in history is, he replied: “Without a doubt, it’s Messi. Ronaldo has reached a level comparable to Messi in many aspects, but perhaps he doesn’t have the innate talent that Leo possesses. Those of us who have truly faced them can immediately perceive the difference. Ronaldo is very dangerous when he enters the penalty area, but Messi can create threats from every corner of the field. I remember when I was seventeen or eighteen, just starting to face him, thinking about tackling him—it was useless. He would move left and right (his signature dribbling), and it just didn’t work.”
Rodri’s most recent club-level confrontation with Messi was in the 2020/21 UEFA Champions League, when Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain were in the same group. Although Manchester City won the second leg of the match at home 2-1, they lost the first leg 0-2 to Paris Saint-Germain.
It’s worth noting that Rodri’s coach, Pep Guardiola, has also mentioned that Rodri and many other Spanish players had the potential to win the Ballon d’Or, but the presence of Messi, this “monster,” made the goal extremely difficult to achieve.
