With amusing irony, Messi vs Ronaldo is hitting the shelves just as Cristiano Ronaldo’s second act at Manchester United is ending in an embarrassing fireball of blame-spreading and self-owning, his abilities having declined to the point where Fred outranks him for shot accuracy this season. Lionel Messi, meanwhile, has been becalmed in Ligue 1 for 18 months, with his many worshippers hoping against hope that he can pull one last big triumph out of the bag, either in Qatar or in the Champions League. Both men are very close to the end, giving this book a somewhat valedictory feel. 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. The two players both missing out on a World Cup win, unless either wins in 2022 is also noted and discussed. The first bit of advice for reading this book comes early – the authors state that this is not intended to be a dual biography of the two legends but instead a thorough look at their careers from playing the game early in life through their rise to their professional teams by examining the business side of international soccer and how it affected them. There is in-depth information on the two clubs that both players spent the bulk of their careers, and it is no coincidence that they are two of the most famous clubs in European soccer – Real Madrid (Ronaldo) and FC Barcelona (Messi). Because of both the celebrity of the players and the name recognition of their clubs, Messi and Ronaldo’s rise in fame also helped bring a revolution in the business of international soccer. The book’s overriding theme is how their career arcs personified the radical transformation of football from a mere sport into a formidable tool of global soft power, which means lots of material about the behind-the-scenes machinations that powered their careers. In the summer of 2008, as Real Madrid try to unsettle Ronaldo at United by planting stories in the press, an outraged Alex Ferguson tells him: “If I do that [cave in to their tactics], all my honour’s gone, everything’s gone for me, and I don’t care if you have to sit in the stands… I will not let you leave this year.”

Discussions and debates about the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) of a particular sport are common today and in international soccer circles, that discussion today revolves around two players – Lionel Messi and Christiano Ronaldo. Strong cases can be made for both players and this book, while very interesting, does not help someone make a case for one or the other to be considered better. There seem to be some learnings around superstars/rivalries as part of a team vs individual (e.g. tennis) but I don’t know enough to compare these guys to Lebron or others to understand the meaningful differences in wealth generated, power vis a vis club owners or leagues, etc. vs. the NBA, NFL, tennis, etc. Audiobook) (4.5 stars) Interesting that I would read this book right before the World Cup Final where Messi led Argentina to a World Cup Championship over France (3-3, 4-2 penalties) where Messi scored two in-game goals and hit one of 4 penalties for Argentina in the shootout. This was the same tournament where Ronaldo would only score one goal on a penalty in the group stage before Portugal fell to Morocco in the Quarterfinals. The book finished up before the World Cup, and before the tumultuous 2022 for Cristiano Ronaldo. Still, looking at these two players is to look at the greatest player vs. player rivalry in football, and arguably one of the top rivalries in all of sports.I regret not watching more club soccer in the last 15 years given that these two (particularly Messi) truly seem like all-time greats and I am sad I missed the beauty - esp of the glory years of Barca. Have been watching a lot of YouTube goals. This book is worth the read even just to get an evolving profile of Florentino Perez, how he became rich, and his tenure as El Presidente of Real Madrid. More details about the Ronaldo and Messi entourages as well as the financial debacle that is post-Messi FC Barcelona was also worth the time. One of the best things that this book has going for it was that it presented the two of them in rivalry, even when they weren't. Additionally, the focus on how they remade soccer's monetary model was eye opening. Clegg did a great job of zooming in and out on the players and their ripple effects on the game and business of soccer. One of the most interesting parts of this book was how Clegg approached both superstars and their approach to the fans and media. The players both present in different ways, Ronaldo as a preening superstar, wanting the world to know about him, while Messi is quiet and just wants to play soccer. However, Clegg was able to strip away some of the image they've presented to find the similarities between the two personalities and recognize that what we see may not be the truth about each player. The book is in three sections, Two Geniuses, Greatest(s) of All Time and Twilight of the Gods. In the first the rise of the two players is chronicled. In the second their time in La Liga together is described. Finally in Twilight of the Gods the aging of the two masters and them leaving La Liga is covered.

Reading this book felt like a very good primer for someone like me - a person just getting into soccer and wanting to know more about it. I learned a great deal from it, and while I doubt that their army of fans would discover anything new, I would imagine this is one of the first times that all this information has been collected into one specific book. I could very well be wrong about that.

I will give an example of one that I learned about the Premier League. Its status as one of the most profitable leagues in the world started when it signed a lucrative television contract with a similarly struggling network at the time, Sky Sports, owned by Rupert Murdoch. Around the same time in the United States, another struggling Murdoch network, Fox, engaged in a similar contract with the National Football League. Both leagues and both networks were never the same again. Messi vs Ronaldo : One Rivalry, Two Goats, and the Era That Remade the World’s Game (2022) by Jonathan Clegg and Joshua Robinson follows on from the two author’s very good book ‘The Club’ on the Premier League and this time looks at the careers of Ronaldo and Messi. 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. This was my Christmas book for Krishna last year. I always enjoy reading biographies of sports greats and also learning about the business of various leagues - this book delivered on both. 4-star since you didn’t get a deep sense for either player - what they’re like and how they’re wired/motivated (which would have been hard given the structure, but I always love). Key disjointed takeaways: Both men got their start as so many soccer stars do, from humble beginnings where they fell in love with the soccer ball, and drove themselves to use their talents to rise to the top of their respective professions. While soccer does not set up for mano a mano engagements, these two would compete for the top spot in the sport. That they spend the prime of their careers on rival teams in Spain only adds to the legend between the two. The reporting of this work does much to help the reader learn about these two mega-stars. Even in America, which is far from soccer mad, most have heard the names of Rolando and Messi, but many do not know the full tales. It is quite the sports tale, and one that most Americans could easily compare with Bird vs. Magic in the NBA or Everett vs. Navratilova or Federer vs. Nadal in Tennis.