A rivalry that changed football

Sport InsightA rivalry that changed footballPublished5 June 2026, 06:19 BSTCommentsUpdated 2 minutes agoImage source, Getty ImagesByAndy CryerBBC Sport senior journalistBrazil's Kaka had just won the 2007 Fifa Player of the Year award but it was an awkward on-stage moment next to him that was to go viral and provide perhaps the first glimpse of a generational rivalry.A youthful Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo had finished second and third respectively but Brazil legend Pele mistakenly handed the latter the trophy for second place at the Zurich Opera House.Fifa president Sepp Blatter had to intervene to ask the duo to swap the trophies, with both looking suitably unimpressed.For the next 10 years, Messi or Ronaldo won every Ballon d'Or and Fifa award going. In fact since 2007, 20 of the 29 gongs awarded for Europe's player of the year has gone to one of them.With approaching 2,000 career goals between them, 85 trophies for club and country and countless individual awards and records, Messi and Ronaldo will forever be remembered as two of the most decorated players in history.It is a rivalry that has defined the last two decades of football, transcending clubs, countries and competitions to reshape how the game has been played, consumed and debated across the world."Two players like them, competing at that level for so many years, fighting over the Ballon d'Or and scoring that many goals... I don't think we'll see it again," Argentina World Cup winner Angel di Maria, who played with both, says in BBC Sport's new documentary Rivals: Messi v Ronaldo.Driven by a pursuit of trophies, records and a relentless desire to be the best, the pair – likely to be making their final World Cup appearances this summer - have pushed each other to new heights.It is a rivalry that goes beyond the ultimate 'greatest of all time' debate they have fuelled."They both changed football," says Di Maria.To play this video you n...