Messi or Ronaldo: Zidane declares the GOAT

Former French footballer Zinedine Zidane is widely considered as one of the best footballers of all time and arguably the greatest French player ever. On club basis, he had a fantastic career with Juventus and Real Madrid.

He would go on to coach the Los Blancos where he won famous three-peat UCL trophies. At the height of his powers was Portuguese mercurial forward Cristiano Ronaldo as the pivot of this impressive run.

Zizou as he’s famously known always had nothing but praise for Ronaldo. However, when he teamed up with Messi for an exclusive Adidas interview, he expressed his admiration for the Argentinean.

Speaking about Messi, Zidane said that he has just one word to describe the former Barcelona captain. And it’s none other than magic before adding that it’s a pity they couldn’t play together.

“What words do I have to describe Messi? Only one: magic.

Today is an important day for me to tell him the admiration I have for him. I feel a connection with him, when I see him play I almost know what he is going to do, and when he does it he still surprises me, I say: ‘this is it’.

There are very few like him, well… only one.”

Zidane also said that he was good at seeing what other players couldn’t see on the pitch. In fact he was always 1 second ahead of others but Messi is always 3 ahead of others.

Meanwhile Messi also expressed admiration for the 1998 Ballon d’Or winner. Messi also talked to Zizou about Diego Maradona. To Argentineans, he’s everything.

“For us, Argentines the number ’10’ is very special, you talked about ’10’ and you automatically would think of Maradona.

“Although no one became like him, the dream and desire was always that… My children already know about him without ever having seen him. For us, Diego is something very strong.”

The 8 time Ballon d’Or winner revealed that apart from Maradona, Pablo Aimar was his idol growing up. Zidane on the other hand Alps idolised an Argentine footballer, Enzo Francescoli.