As Ronaldo sees red, Barça's Messi remains the Fair Play King
The Barcelona forward's record is not tainted by red like Ronaldo's
The comparison between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo is now historic. A rivalry that defies even logic. It doesn't matter that Ronaldo no longer plays for Messi's rivals. He may have left La Liga, but the clash between the two stars of the last decade continues. They're compared in goals, assists, hat-tricks, team titles, individual titles, goals per minute, minutes players... there is no data that escapes when it comes to arguing who's the best.
And in a week when Ronaldo was the big story, of course the comparison rears its head. The forward, now playing for Juventus, was involved in one of the moments of the week as the Champions League returned. As Messi scored a hat-trick at Camp Nou, Ronaldo was sent off after 30 minutes at Mestalla against Valencia.
The red card shown to Ronaldo in Spain was the 11th of his professional career. Eight of them have come away from home. However, Messi has never been sent off for Barça. A statistic which says a lot about Leo Messi, a clean player who stay away from controversy.
It's true that Messi has seen red for Argentina -- curiously on his debut. The Argentine was involved in a surreal scene in a friendly against Hungary in 2005, 30 seconds after coming on. It was a controversial moment which has been remembered as "unjust" by the majority of the world. That's the stain on the No.10 in terms of dismissals.
However, going back to Ronaldo's 11 red cards: four with Manchester United, six with Real Madrid and one with Juve. His curious relationship with expulsions began in 2004, in a game against Aston Villa. He was then sent off twice against Manchester City and a further time against Portsmouth. In La Liga, his first red was against Almeria and then he was also dismissed against Malaga, Atletico Madrid, Athletic Bilbao, Cordoba and Barça.
His red for Juve was his first in Europe, which was strange, given that we have seen Wednesday's scenes at Mestalla on many occasions in the past. Now, with Juve, Ronaldo's opened his account in the Champions League, while Messi continues to do his thing, demonstrating his hunger to win the competition with a hat-trick in Barcelona's opening game.
