According to 2022 World Cup champion Angel di Maria, compatriot Lionel Messi is greater than former teammate Cristiano Ronaldo because he has won more Ballon d’Or awards.
Di Maria is one of the few players to have played alongside both Ronaldo and Messi. The Argentine midfielder spent four years with Ronaldo at Real Madrid, winning La Liga, the Champions League and the UEFA Super Cup. At international level, Di Maria has been Messi’s team-mate since 2008, winning gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, two Copa Americas and the 2022 World Cup. The pair were also reunited briefly at PSG, before Di Maria moved to Juventus.
In an interview with L’Équipe , when asked who was the greatest, Di Maria replied: “Both have an incredible winning spirit. But in the end, the best is the one with the most Ballons d’Or, and Messi has eight, Ronaldo has five. For me, that creates a certain distance between the two.”
After about 10 years of dominating European football, Ronaldo and Messi have both left the top playing fields. Ronaldo is currently playing for Al Nassr, while Messi is serving Inter Miami.
According to Di Maria , the two former teammates still receive a lot of attention even though they have left European football. “After dominating the sport for so many years, people still talk about them globally, even when they play in the US and Saudi Arabia,” the 36-year-old midfielder said. “Their rivalry has raised the level of La Liga and made the whole world fall in love with football. When Messi comes to MLS, Americans are starting to rediscover the sport.”
In another interview with ESPN Argentina last weekend, when asked about the top three best coaches he has worked with, Di Maria named the worst. “The worst is Louis van Gaal, for sure. I want to clarify if you have any questions about this,” the 36-year-old midfielder said.
In the summer of 2014, Di Maria moved to Man Utd for a total fee of 116 million USD, becoming the most expensive contract of the team at that time. But the Argentine star had a forgettable season under Van Gaal, scoring 4 goals and assisting 11 in 32 matches, then moved to PSG in the summer of 2015.
Before the Argentina – Netherlands match in the quarter-finals of the 2022 World Cup, Di Maria also attacked Van Gaal when he called him the worst coach of his career. “I can score goals, make assists, but after the match Van Gaal showed me a video summarizing my mistakes,” Di Maria said about his time working with the Dutch coach at Man Utd.
Van Gaal later admitted that he did not like being called the worst coach of his career by Di Maria, but stressed that the coach must make decisions that benefit the team. The Dutch coach affirmed that he still considered Di Maria a good player, but that his student’s failure at Man Utd was due to personal problems, not related to him.
In an interview with ESPN Argentina , Di Maria praised Lionel Scaloni – the coach who led Argentina to the 2022 World Cup – as one of the best coaches. The midfielder also paid tribute to Alejandro Sabella, the late coach who led Argentina from 2011-2014, who had a great influence on him.
The former Real Madrid and Juventus midfielder also holds a special place for Diego Maradona – the late legend who coached him at Argentina. “I don’t see Maradona as a coach, because he is like a friend and a brother to me,” Di Maria said. “Maradona believed in me even when no one else believed in me, that would help me progress. The more criticism I received, the more he supported me.”
