NOT EVEN CLOSE.
That was the sentiment expressed by president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), Michel Platini, when asked whether he thought the quality of football was better in his heyday or now in its present state.
“Football is better now. It is better now because now there are a lot of countries playing football. . . and in the past they were not a lot of facilities to play football. We had to play it in the streets,” Platini told the media after taking a tour of the National Stadium on Monday.
“But now football is more organised and there are a lot more people playing. The television brings football to every part of the world and in every part of the world the people want to be Messis and they want to be Ronaldos and they fight.
“It brings hope for them. They hope to be professional in Europe or in South America, and because of this hope a lot of young players want to play football, and because of that there are more top players,”the 59 year-old former midfielder added.
Platini did agree that Argentina’s Lionel Messi, and Portugal’s Christiano Ronaldo were by far the best soccer players in the world.
However, he maintained that because of their contrasting styles, it was almost impossible to determine who was indeed the better.
“For me there is no debate. They are the two best players in the whole world, but they are totally different,” Platini pointed out.
“We don’t need to say one is better than the other. One is very, very good and the other is very, very good too. What is very important is that with two different people we can reach a very beautiful football.
“Messi is smaller, quicker and very technical, while Ronaldo is taller, stronger, has a big ego, but both are fantastic and it is not my job to say one is better than the other because it is not possible,” France’s second highest top scorer of all time said.