With Messi being a freak of nature, any player including Pele , Maradona and now CR7 would be under his shadow. But let’s assume,Messi somehow does not exist, how would CR7 be viewed? Would he be the undisputed greatest like Micheal Jordon for football, considering all the league titles and champions league he lost to Messi’s Barcelona.
Would Ronaldo have pushed so hard if Messi didn’t exist though? They both pushed each other to greater heights. If Messi didn’t exist it wouldn’t surprise me if Ronaldo scored 500 instead of 800
This. I’d even go further and say without Ronaldo then Messi doesn’t need to push as hard and doesn’t hit his heights either.