The long-serving Real Madrid defender spent five years alongside CR7 at Santiago Bernabeu between 2013 and 2018. He saw the Portuguese superstar become the Blancos’ all-time leading scorer, while adding to his Ballon d’Or collection, and came up against Barcelona legend Messi on a regular basis.
Carvajal would be expected to side with Ronaldo in the ongoing greatest of all-time discussion, given their history together, but he has too much respect for Messi – who has eight Golden Balls of his own and is the most decorated player in the history of the men’s game – to pick sides.
Instead, Carvajal has told Daniel Habif: “Messi or Ronaldo? I put them on the same level. I don’t prefer one over the other. They are monsters in every sense of the word, and I could not choose neither this, nor that. I think they are very different. Messi is a player who is able to go back, receive the ball, and create attacks, and then he can participate in the play and create. Cristiano is a monster at scoring goals, attacking the area, and finishing. If they were playing together, they would have been a bomb. And it would have been interesting to see.”
