Why The Haaland vs Mbappe Rivalry Won't Be The Next Messi vs Cristiano: Why It's A Good Thing
In the previous, I spoke about three reasons why the Haaland vs Mbappe "rivalry" won't be the next Messi vs Cristiano rivalry. My reasons were:
The lack of grey area as the two don't have anything in common besides scoring goals.
National level as Norway isn't remotely close to France.
Stardom, which is a complicated enough term with intricate details that it got its own part, plus took the majority of the first part as well.
In this post, I will speak about the remaining three reasons and conclude with why it's actually a good thing that Haaland vs Mbappe won't be the next Messi vs Cristiano.
4- Indiividual Awards
Of course, Haaland and Mbappe are likely destined to win every golden boot in their respective leagues every season. But, what about the top awards? Here I am speaking about awards like the Ballon d'Or, FIFA's The Best, and the UEFA Club Football Awards mainly. This one is related to stardom can you imagine Mbappe losing the UEFA Champions League semi-final against Liverpool and still win the Ballon d'Or with only the local cup and a continental trophy with Argentina to show for it?
Of course, these rewards don't have set standards to follow, there's no checklist. But, what we could definitely agree on is that popularity plays a huge part when it comes to who wins it.
The number of Ballon d'Ors, FIFA's The Best, and UEFA's Player of the Season fed the Messi vs Cristiano rivalry to a huge extent. They're always mentioned in conversations. The pair have the ability to win these awards even when their respective teams don't win them. You can't completely rule out Messi winning FIFA's The Best even if he didn't win the World Cup while it was very to eliminate Mbappe once he didn't win the World Cup.
Messi and Cristiano became entities dominating these awards for the longest time, so much so that when they make headlines and cause anger when they don't feature in the top 3. This relates to the next reason
5- Messi And Cristiano Are Simply Better
I actually don't believe this reason matters as much but it has to be mentioned: Messi and Cristiano, at their best, are simply better than Mbappe and Haaland.
Throughout Messi's entire career and the first half of Cristiano Ronaldo's career, the pair have been all-rounders. Technical skills, great positioning, outstanding vision, just top performance week in and week out for ten years at least. I am not here to just say that Messi and Cristiano's stats are better. Stats are stats and rarely tell the whole story, but the pair had larger-than-life performances even when their teams lost.
Still, stats matter and they heavily favourite Messi and Cristiano as Mbappe and Haaland would have to move mountains before the conversation even starts. We've already seen the stat that Mbappe and Haaland would need to score 40-42 goals a season for the next 12-13 seasons to match one of Cristiano's record. They also would need to score 91-92 goals in one year to match or outdo Messi's record.
The shocking part is that matching those numbers won't even say much, it would just make Haaland and Mbappe eligible for comparisons. This leads me to the final reason.
6- The Faux Rivalry
The Messi vs Cristiano rivalry attracted everyone's attention, the Ronaldo fans, the Zidane fans, the Maradona fans, the Pele fans, and all the different fandoms around the world participated in that conversation. The reason they did participate is that every now and then Messi and Cristiano would break one record held by the others.
As far as Messi and Cristiano's generations are concerned, it would take a lot to get them invested, a lot of UEFA Champions League wins, a lot of impressive records, and a lot of fantastic performances. However, by the time those can be achieved by Mbappe or Haaland, it might actually be too late for it to matter.
Trying to enforce the Mbappe vs Haaland rivalry into being similar to that of Messi vs Cristiano would be like someone telling a joke told more than once in the past hour and expecting people to laugh. People might just laugh out of courtesy to avoid embarrassing the person, but deep down we will know that this is a made-up rivalry created for media traffic and nothing more.
There's a possibility that Mbappe or Haaland's surroundings might encourage the players to say stuff to add fuel to the rivalry as both would benefit more money and fame from that struggle just like Cristiano and Messi did. However, even that is unlikely despite all the commercial reasons for it to happen. Haaland has already played down such a rivalry with Mbappe in an article I doubt you read because the media has no interest in pushing it and people have no interest in reading or sharing such a statement because people also want to have such a rivalry.
Haaland's statement is unlikely to be brought up among friends or football studios because no one has an interest in the lack of rivalry, the opposite is what people want. Manchester City fans want Haaland to be better than Mbappe, but not remotely as much as they want him to be better than Rashford. There's no direct rivalry between Manchester City and Paris Saint- Germain. This leads me to the final point on this topic.
Messi and Cristiano's rivalry began because of entities bigger than both who were at war with each other, Real Madrid and Barcelona. Those two clubs already have hundreds of millions if not billions of fans worldwide, a well-established fanbase going to war every week for the silliest reasons like one player scored a header when the other scored a free-kick.
As great as Messi and Cristiano are, they needed Barcelona and Real Madrid and the rivalry between those two clubs to become what they became. This takes me to the final people point of this series.
Is It A Good Thing?
Is it a good thing that Mbappe vs Haaland's rivalry won't be as good as Messi vs Cristiano? My answer is definitely.
Mbappe and Haaland's failure to meet Cristiano and Messi's level of stardom and rivalry means that they won't dominate the media and won't dominate individual awards. It means a healthier competition level where everyone who plays in a season would be eligible to win the big awards. And honestly, it means fewer headache-inducing comparisons every day. It means less stupidity, less meanness, less ignobility, less emotional blackmail, and less fighting.
It would also mean that more clubs and players would be participating in those top awards ceremonies. We might see Rashford, Saka, Bellingham, Pedri, Gavi, Musiala, Vinicius Junior, Victor Osimhen, Kvaratskhelia, and many more players having a chance to win more individual awards. All teams would be able to participate in the conversation.
As great as I look like I am hailing the Messi vs Cristiano rivalry, I will honestly say that it was not a pretty one. Whether you're in the Messi or Cristiano camp of this rivalry, this rivalry must have exhausted you. Many great players were belittled, insulted, and bullied in the process of making this rivalry. This rivalry took more energy and peace from people than anything else in the world of social media. So, the rivalry itself was ugly and I sincerely hope it is not repeated.
This rivalry had a very beautiful side as it brought out the best in each player on the pitch. But, off the pitch, it was disgusting. People bullied, insulted, demeaned, assaulted, and in some cases killed each other for this rivalry. The part of the rivalry was lame, stupid, silly, and honestly wasn't a rivalry, it was just animosity.
What made the rivalry exceptionally was how good both players were, but the side of social media and those "burn!" statements, whether from Messi fans, Cristiano fans, or even Cristiano himself was just disgusting.
The Messi vs Cristiano rivalry won't be repeated, and I believe it's a very good thing.
Sources
How Cristiano Ronaldo’s brand partnerships influence customers - NewsWhip
'The Ronaldo Effect' - Can the CR7 brand stay relevant enough to help Saudi Arabia secure the 2030 World Cup? - Goal
Haaland is not rude or arrogant – just ask the man who did ‘that’ interview - The Athletic
How Haaland and Mbappe are using leverage in ways Messi and Ronaldo never did - ESPN
The Controversial Business of Kylian Mbappé - Athletic Interest
Previous Parts
Why The Haaland vs Mbappe Rivalry Won't Be The Next Messi vs Cristiano: The Lack of a Grey Area, National Level, and Stardom
Why The Haaland vs Mbappe Rivalry Won't Be The Next Messi vs Cristiano: Stardom
I think that Haaland got the advantage on Mbappe when he signed with ManCity and Mbappe renwed with PSG. In premier league, there many chances to win more individual awards while Mbappe needs to win the Euro and the World Cup to improve his chances, or make supernatural records in League 1.
One more thing, there is a player who can make the advantage on Haaland and Mbappe, Vinicius jr, he plays in Real Madrid and making a great performance, I think he will be the next legend.
I never thought of it like this but you're 100% correct. If Mbappe has his sight set on individual awards, PSG is really not the place.
I love watching football with friends even when I could watch it from the comfort of my home. Some years back, two of my friends beat themselves to stupor while arguing about who the better player was between Messi and Ronaldo. The argument led to insulting words thrown around, that led to a big fight. I stayed away from watching football with friends for a while because of that.
Honestly, football doesn't need Mbappe-Haaland rivalry. However, these journalists will never allow it. They want something to write about, they will go to any length to start that war. The fact that Haaland is already denying a rivalry means word is getting to him about a possible rivalry with Mbappe. That will play in his mind.
May God help us all if those two find themselves competing in the same league at their peak.
That first paragraph was painful to read, I am sorry you went through that. I actually stopped watching El Classico with friends, unless they all were supporting only one side. And also stopped checking out social media after a match for similar reasons, although much less severe.
Yeah, this is why I am saying it will not feel like a genuine rivalry.
Yeah, will be a nightmare.
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Messi -Ronaldo rivalry spotted on a time where the modern day football began to evolve and they played pairs of decades time together. I think, one thing separates the contending duo's that, Messi -Ron make up was diverse in talent, skills, performance criteria, role played in game, wisdom & insights, the match scene reading and fan base.
I acknowledge your take on the fact, that its true - this gen of soccer stars wont fill the vacuity the duo used to have. Mbappe is surely talented, but only feat is he scores goal. Thats fine. But, to be omni achievers, other roles such as - playmaking,organizing own team,leading in midst of crisis, holding the media & press and keeping a solid fan base missed time to time.
So as for Haaland.
But, more time left still to prove!
For me Haaland and Mbappe still have a huge amount to prove to be even included in the same sentence as Messi and Ronaldo, but they are still very young and incredibly talented. Also, remember that the Norway team also boasts Arsenal captain Martin Ødegaard, so I would not be surprised to see Norway to start doing well at International level.