Gary Lineker Insists Messi Is Superior to Ronaldo: ‘Anyone That Understands the Game Will See That’

Gary Lineker, the former England and Leicester City striker who won the Golden Boot at the 1986 FIFA World Cup, has once again placed Lionel Messi above Cristiano Ronaldo in the ongoing debate over who is the superior footballer — and above Diego Maradona as well.

Lineker made the remarks during an appearance on The Louis Theroux Podcast, where he spoke at length about the Inter Miami forward’s extraordinary natural ability. Notably, the pundit ranked Messi ahead of Maradona despite having faced the late Argentine icon directly during what is widely regarded as the peak of Maradona’s playing career.

“I always feel bad because people have a go at me because they say, ‘Oh, you don’t like Ronaldo,'” Lineker said. “It’s not that I don’t like Ronaldo… but there’s no argument about who is the better footballer. Anyone that understands the game will see that. He hasn’t got the ability that Messi has. No one has. But it’s not an insult to Ronaldo to say that.”

Lineker’s position on the Messi-Ronaldo question is well established in football media circles. The former striker, who scored 48 goals in 80 appearances for England and is among the most prominent football broadcasters in the world, has consistently aligned himself with the Messi camp whenever the debate has surfaced publicly.

According to reports, Lineker’s repeated preference for Messi has not gone unnoticed by Ronaldo himself. The Portuguese forward is said to have unfollowed Lineker on social media platforms as a result of the pundit’s commentary — though this has not been officially confirmed by either party.

The rivalry between Messi and Ronaldo has divided football supporters for the better part of two decades. Between them, the two players have won 13 Ballon d’Or awards — eight for Messi and five for Ronaldo — and have collectively dominated European football since the mid-2000s. Messi’s eighth Ballon d’Or, won in 2023 following Argentina’s 2022 FIFA World Cup triumph in Qatar, further cemented his lead in that particular metric.

Messi, now 37, continues to play for Inter Miami in Major League Soccer, while Ronaldo, 40, is contracted to Saudi Pro League club Al Nassr. Both players are widely regarded as having entered the latter stages of their careers, lending the comparison an increasingly retrospective character as the football world begins to assess their respective legacies.

Lineker’s comments arrive during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico — a tournament in which neither Messi nor Ronaldo is participating at the time of publication. Portugal were eliminated from the competition, while Argentina’s campaign continues to draw global attention in Messi’s absence from the national setup.

The debate shows no sign of settling, with prominent figures across football continuing to offer diverging assessments. Lineker’s intervention, however, stands out for its directness: his argument is not simply that Messi is better, but that the conclusion should be self-evident to anyone with a genuine understanding of the sport.