🚨🎙️ Pepe on Cristiano Ronaldo declaring himself the Greatest of All Time ahead of Lionel Messi. Reporter: Cristiano has just declared himself the greatest player of all time. Do you think he’s right to put himself above Messi? Pepe: “Listen, I’m Portuguese, Cristiano is my friend, and we shared incredible moments together. I will never disrespect his achievements, but friendship doesn’t mean I have to agree with everything he says. Honestly, I don’t understand why someone with his career still feels the need to convince everybody he’s the greatest. When I heard him suggesting Portugal would be nothing without him, I felt embarrassed. Cristiano, you’re 41 years old. Your legacy is already extraordinary. Why not let people decide who you are instead of constantly trying to convince them? Look at Messi. The man has won almost everything, including the World Cup, yet he never needed to spend his career reminding people he’s the greatest. He lets his football speak. Reporter: You played alongside Ronaldo and faced Messi during their prime. Which one was more difficult to stop? Pepe: “Cristiano was unbelievable. We trained together for years, and I know his mentality. When he enters your box, you cannot switch off for a second because he will punish you. He’s one of the greatest goalscorers football has ever seen. But Messi? That was something else entirely. I remember those El Clásico matches. Sergio Ramos and I would study him and discuss how to stop him, but sometimes, even when you did everything right, he found a solution nobody had imagined. With Cristiano, you’re terrified of what he might do in front of goal. With Messi, you’re worried about everything. He could destroy your midfield, dribble past several players, eliminate your defensive line and create a goal from absolutely nothing. You weren’t just defending against a player; you were trying to solve a problem that kept changing. And this is where I think Cristiano misses the point. Football isn’t just about goals. What about creativity, vision, dribbling and controlling an entire match? Goals matter, but so does making your teammates better and creating things nobody else can see. Cristiano has built an incredible legacy, and nobody can take that away from him. But Messi possesses something that statistics alone cannot explain. For me, he’s the kind of footballer who comes along once in a lifetime. Sometimes, you watch him and wonder whether God decided to give one man a little bit of everything. Cristiano can believe he’s the greatest. He’s entitled to his opinion. But when you’ve played alongside one and suffered against the other, you understand why football’s greatest debate will never be settled by goals alone.”#creatorsearchinsight #footballnews #football - @football_news857