How do you tell when someone is suffering from this syndrome?
Symptom 1:
They care about who score the goals more than who won the game.
Let’s face it, in La Liga games, when a team is going against Real Madrid or Barcelona, we basically know who is going to win (most of the time). So you don’t think about questions like which team will win, or will it be a draw, but how many goals will Messi or Ronaldo scores. If Ronaldo happens to score hat-trick on Saturday, then all eyes will be on Messi to see if he will catch up on the goals. Top scorer in La Liga is a battle between Ronaldo and Messi, no one else stands a chance, both managers trying to help by putting them on the starting lineup all the time and ask other players to pass the ball to them as much as they can because they don’t want the rival to defeat them, not even the top scorer award.
Symptom 2:
El Clasico is a game between Ronaldo and Messi.
"El Clasico, a battle between Ronaldo and Messi.” Looks familiar? This headline at least appeared like 4 times last season. Before every El Clasico, the news will start listing out how many goals Ronaldo had scored in the season so far; how many have Messi scored. Move on to Messi not yet score a goal against Mourinho’s team (at that time), Ronaldo didn’t do well the last time when they played against Barcelona…blah blah blah…all the statistics, facts about this two players and compared them. After the match, again, tons and tons of statistics, facts about the players’ performances in the game.
Symptom 3:
Ask everyone Ronaldo or Messi? Real Madrid or Barcelona? As if this two teams consist 11 Ronaldos and 11 Messis.
The two questions is like saying, there’re only two teams in La Liga, so come on, pick one. Who do you think will win the title? and btw, which player do you think is better, Messi or Ronaldo? Other choices? What do you mean other choices? All I know is Messi or Ronaldo, who cares about others!
Other footballers, no matter in this two teams or not, they just have to answer the two questions somehow, during their interviews or in Q&A session with fans on Twitter. Come on, give us a break! Is it really that important to pick one? Both of them are good players, as well as other players in Barcelona and Real Madrid.
La Liga is already imbalanced enough to have two teams always at the top, winning most of their games, being like big bullies and win all the titles. Now even within the teams, they have two bullies named Ronaldo and Messi, scoring most of the goals, winning top scorer award, and get all the spotlight and news headlines. No, I am not trying to say they do not deserve such attention, but it has become overwhelming. Premier League attracts more audiences for a reason. They are less predictable, more interesting, they may have four bullies, or five, or six, but it changes all the time, some teams pop up and surprised you in a new season, and good players share the spotlight. Ronaldo wasn’t that cocky back in United, because Rooney shared the spotlight with him. Even after he left, Man Utd still do well, so nothing allow him to be cocky. But in Real Madrid it is different, when he is not performing, not scoring, the team scores less, and the manager can’t take the risk not to let him play, because when it turned out bad, the manager takes the blame. So Ronaldo is always on, even he plays terribly. On the other side, similar things happen. Messi is more likable because he is shy and humble, but on the pitch, he is hungry for goals, as much as Ronaldo. When he gets the ball, he dribbles pass 1 player, 2 player, 3 player and shoot! Everyone is amazed by the goals he scored, how beautiful is that goal, so no one remember those he wasted. Yet, sometimes the camera caught a frustrated Villa, hands covering his face, standing at a better position. Maybe all players who grew up with Messi is happy to provide for him, to help him score, because they are used to it, they were trained that way, but Eto’o can’t, Ibrahimovic can’t and David Villa, probably can’t.
A teary Bojan said in the press conference before he left for Roma that he hoped he could have been given more chances in Barcelona. Departure of Eto’o and Ibrahimovic, now Villa on the bench, rumors about Spanish players and Ronaldo can’t get along, these all have something to do with the Messi-Ronaldo competition. Some people said Arsenal is a one man team when van Persie has been scoring most of their goal this seasons, yet, enjoying “one man show” from Real Madrid and Barcelona every week, overlooking the fact that Messi and Ronaldo are making the already very imbalanced La Liga even more skewed. This doesn’t just hurt the league, make it less interesting, and hurts the team, which rely too much on a player, it is not good for themselves too. They are so used to people around helping them, provides for them, therefore, they can’t really play outside of their club, which pretty much explained their not-too-convincing performances in the national teams.
Images via Daylife/AP/GettyImages
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