Football
Dermot Corrigan, Madrid correspondent 8y

Cristiano Ronaldo not a team player like Lionel Messi - Johan Cruyff

Former Barcelona player and coach Johan Cruyff says that current Blaugrana star Lionel Messi is a better player than Cristiano Ronaldo, as the Real Madrid Galactico is just "a great goal scorer" who does not concern himself with how the team plays overall.

Cruyff played at the Camp Nou from 1973 to 1978 and managed the Catalan club from 1988 to 1996, during which time he guided to the team to their first Champions League trophy.

As a player with Ajax and Netherlands, the Dutchman was a roving forward who often organised his teammates on the pitch during games as his teams played a "total football" style, while as a coach he has been credited with introducing the "tiki-taka" possession-based approach with which Barca and Spain have had such success in recent times.

The 68-year-old said in Mundo Deportivo that Messi was more of a team player than Ronaldo, who was only worried with goals, not passes or assists.

"I have always liked the little technical players, because I was like that," Cruyff said. "Cristiano is a good player, but he is a goal scorer. He will never be a player who can make a team, or who is concerned that the team plays well, he is just worried about finishing.

"By contrast, Messi is much more a team player: he gives passes, makes many more assists. As a player, not as a goalscorer, although he scores many goals."

Cruyff claimed that the distinction between being a "great player" and a "great goal scorer" was too subtle for most football fans to understand.

"For me there is a big difference between being a great player and a goal scorer," he said. "That is why you must look at things differently, looking at the details. Very few people do that. It is difficult to explain because nobody will understand it."

Despite his current injury, Messi is hot favourite to win this year's Ballon d'Or award, and retake a trophy which Ronaldo has claimed in both 2013 and 2014, and Cruyff said there as "no debate" over who deserved the 2015 award.

"There is no debate, nobody is at Messi's level," he said. "They will give it to him again."

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