"He unfollowed me on Instagram. I'll get over it." Gary Lineker, deadpan as ever, summing up his relationship with Cristiano Ronaldo in one sentence.
Speaking on The Rest Is Football alongside Alan Shearer and Micah Richards — who apparently couldn't keep straight faces — Lineker confirmed what many suspected: his long-held view that Messi is the better footballer has not gone down well in the Ronaldo camp. No falling out, no confrontation. Just a quiet unfollow and a lingering chill.
"I didn't upset him by anything I said about him... other than the fact I'm honest and think overall Messi's a better footballer," Lineker said. He went on to extend an olive branch of sorts: "Please Cristiano, give me a call. Let's be friends again."
A debate that won't die
Thirteen Ballon d'Or awards between them since 2008. Two careers that dominated an entire era of football and somehow ran almost perfectly in parallel. The Messi vs. Ronaldo debate has quietened as both men drift toward the end of their playing days, but it never fully goes away — and the 2026 World Cup will inevitably drag it back into the spotlight.
Ronaldo is currently at Al-Nassr, where he's put up 25 goals and four assists in 29 matches this season. The numbers remain elite by any reasonable standard. Whether that translates to World Cup relevance for Portugal is a separate question entirely.
Why an MLS move would be a mistake
Bradley Wright-Phillips, who knows MLS from the inside after years at New York Red Bulls, has a clear view on where Ronaldo shouldn't end up next. "I don't want to see him in the MLS," he told Covers.com. "It's too late in his career now."
His comparison to Olivier Giroud at LAFC is the sharpest part of the argument. Giroud, a genuinely excellent striker for most of his career, looked lost without the right service in Los Angeles. Wright-Phillips sees the same trap waiting for Ronaldo: "I'd worry the same might happen to Cristiano."
It's a real concern. MLS has grown, but it remains a league where the quality of the ball into the box is inconsistent. Ronaldo's game at this stage depends heavily on service and positioning — not the relentless pressing and explosive pace that carried him through his peak years. If the supply dries up, the goals dry up with it, and that's not how anyone wants to remember him.
For now, Al-Nassr remains the stage. The Instagram feud with Lineker, apparently, remains unresolved.
